Negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership are set to continue next month. The trade agreement is between the European Union and the United States, and upon resumption of talks in July American Farm Bureau trade specialist Dave Salmonsen says many agriculture issues must be resolved to complete the deal. Those include sanitary barriers and standards by the EU, eliminating tariffs for U.S. products and geographic indicators.
“These are the kind of things that are still under contention and are looming as continuing barriers for moving ahead on the ag section. So, these have been issues that have been going on, but flared up even more recently.”
Salmonsen says the talks next month will likely focus on eliminating tariffs. The EU currently levies higher tariffs than the United States.
“These are classic issues to talk about in trade and I think there’s a desire to try to get an agreement on something. Removing tariffs is important, always, and still important in agriculture in our trade with the European Union.”
He warns political issues could impact the negations, including the vote in Britain to consider leaving the EU and of course our own U.S. presidential election.
“The referendum in Britain is on June 23rd. Depending on the outcome, that could lead to a lot of uncertainty over the future of the European Union. And, of course, some of the positions on trade issues from some of the presidential candidates leads to uncertainty on the European Union side about how this TTIP deal will progress in the future after the end of the Obama administration.”
Source: AFBF