Recommendations to the European Commission on the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

The Committee on International Trade adopted the report by Bernard LANGE (S&D, DE) containing the European Parliament’s recommendations to the European Commission on the negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

This report is a follow-up of resolutions adopted in the previous parliamentary term on trade and investment negotiations with the United States in October 2012 and May 2013. Its aim is to allow Members of different committees within the Parliament to make a reflected contribution to the TTIP negotiation process. Parliament is continuing to push for the highest possible level of transparency to guarantee an agreement which respects European values, stimulates sustainable growth and contributes to the well-being of all citizens.

The committee addressed, in the context of the ongoing negotiations on TTIP, a number of recommendations to the Commission. The main areas concern:

Scope: Members stressed that:

• while the TTIP negotiations consist of negotiations on three main areas – ambitiously improving reciprocal market access (for goods, services, investment and public procurement at all levels of government), reducing non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and enhancing the compatibility of regulatory regimes, and developing common rules to address shared global trade challenges and opportunities need to be included in a comprehensive package;
• TTIP should be ambitious and binding on all levels of government on both sides of the Atlantic;
• TTIP must ensure synergies with other trade agreements currently being negotiated;
• the agreement should guarantee full respect for EU fundamental rights standards through the inclusion of a legally binding and suspensive human rights clause as a standard part of EU trade agreements with third countries.

Market access: Members recommended that:

• while aiming to eliminate all customs tariffs, the two partners should nonetheless negotiate an exhaustive list of sensitive agriculture and industrial products which would either be exempted from trade liberalisation, or subject to longer transitional periods;

• a safeguard clause should be incorporated into the agreement, which would be invoked where a rise in imports of a particular product threatened to cause serious harm to domestic food production;
• the EU’s geographical indications system should be further strengthened;
• the mutual recognition of professional qualifications should be improved;
• mechanisms for more efficient international cooperation with the aim to set global higher standards against financial and tax criminality and corruption should be introduced; 
• the digital economy must be central to the transatlantic market;
• exclusions for certain products will need to be considered on a case by case basis.

Energy resources: Members noted that:

• the TTIP should abolish any existing restrictions or impediments of export for fuels, including Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and crude oil between the EU and the US;
• the TTIP deal should include a specific energy chapter, which must also help maintain the EU's environmental standards and climate action goals.

Regulatory cooperation: Members called for:

• the establishment of a structured dialogue and cooperation between regulators in the most transparent way possible and involving stakeholders;
• the US side to lift the ban on beef imports from the EU;
• the full respect of the established regulatory systems on both sides of the Atlantic.

Data protection: the TTIP should:

• ensure that the EU’s acquis on data privacy is not compromised through the liberalisation of data flows, in particular in the area of e-commerce and financial services, while recognising the relevance of data flows as a backbone of transatlantic trade and the digital economy.

Lastly, the report stressed that it should be kept in mind that the consent of the European Parliament to the final TTIP agreement could be endangered as long as the US blanket mass surveillance activities are not completely abandoned and an adequate solution is found for the data privacy rights of EU citizens, including administrative and judicial redress.