The Priorities of the Greek Presidency of the Foreign Affairs Council / Trade

I. Country Oriented (Vertical) Priorities

Facilitation of the dialogue between the Member – States themselves , as well as between the Council, the Parliament and the European Commission, in order to contribute to the fine tuning the EU negotiating strategy, concerning Bilateral Trade Agreements.  The importance of the issue increases in the case of Mixed Competency Agreements. I.e. agreements that touch aspects beyond the common trade policy.  This seems to be the case for almost every bilateral agreement currently under negotiation.

TTIP negotiations: Αfter the December round and subsequent meetings in the new year, the Council could usefully discuss the state of play of EU/US negotiations. The European Commission has also spoken of holding a “political stocktaking” in early 2014.  Moreover, the Informal Ministerial Council in Athens (February 2014) can serve as a platform to accommodate exchange of ideas from the business community of both sides of the Atlantic.

CETA with Canada: Currently under finalization regarding  technical and legal issues. Once the finalization process and the legal review are completed, the parties will be in a position to initial the agreement (possiby during the summer of 2014).

EU/Japan FTA negotiations: The Commission is expected to report in April on the implementation of commitments to be taken by Japan regarding the elimination of NTBs and the need to increase market access in public procurement on railways and urban transport. Depending on the progress reported, the Council might have to  decide if the review clause should be triggered  in its Formal Meeting in Brussels in May.

China, Mediterranean, Gulf countries: The Presidency puts special emphasis on the relations with China, as well as the Mediterranean and Gulf countries, since they constitute major partners for the EU in the global scene. In this framework, the Presidency, working closely with the European Commission, will try to move things forward, especially in terms of bilateral agreements that are under negotiation.

EU-Mercosur: Nine negotiation rounds (the last on 22-26 October 2012) have taken place until now. Rounds have focused on the part of the Agreement related to rules and the two regions are still working on the preparation of their market access offers. No date has been set yet for the exchange of market access offers although there some positive signals from Brazil.

II. Thematic (Horizontal) Priorities.

EU Protected Geographical Indications(PGIs) & Protected Designation of Origin(PDOs): Increased protection of European high-quality agricultural products, the vast majority of which falls into the PGIs and PDOs categories, will remain an EU priority as far as the whole range of trade negotiations is concerned, since it is closely linked to the structural adjustment of European agriculture, as well as the successful access of traditional EU high added-value food products to international markets.

Maritime aspect of Trade Policy: The Presidency would also like to highlight that Seaborne trade constitutes 90 percent of total trade between the EU and third countries and 40 percent of intra-EU trade, thus making it a determining factor of EU economic growth and prosperity and a guarantor of the smooth flow of European imports and exports worldwide. Bearing all these in mind, the Presidency will work to ensure that all EU trade agreements with third countries contain standard articles on maritime transport and on the liberalization of maritime services in particular.

III. Multilateral Agreements

WTO – post Bali work:The focus in the WTO will shift to issues left unresolved in Bali as well as to other DDA issues. From the side of the EU, this could justify the need for the Council to conduct a proper assessment of the outcome in Bali, but also initiating a more strategic debate on the direction we want the WTO to take.

Non tariff barriers:  Among the problems that have to be solved within the post Bali frame is the adoption of measures aiming at improving market access.  To achieve this goal, one of the issues to be overcome is the reduction or even the elimination of non tariff barriers (NTB).  Clearly a priority, since a major part of the obstacles that European companies face in their exporting endeavours are attributed to NTBs.  And the victims are mainly the SME, which constitute the backbone of the European Economy.  In this context, the contribution of Member – States, especially in the form of information resulting in the quantification of the degree at which an NTB prevents EU exports, would be encouraged.

IV. Legislative Work

The presidency will act as an honest broker to facilitate the exchange of ideas between the Parliament and the Council, with a view of finally arriving at an adoption of the following legislative proposals:

• Proposal on financial responsibility linked to investor/state dispute resolution: negotiations will continue so as to further this dossier.

• Trade Enforcement: Proposal for an EU Regulation concerning the exercise of the Union’s rights for the application and enforcement of international trade rules.

• Government Procurement Instrument, Proposal for a Regulation

• Trade Defense Instruments Modernization: A legislative proposal amending Basic Regulations of TDIs.

It is obvious that those proposals aim at improving the attractiveness of the EU as an FDI destination and at demonstrating its readiness to respond on a reciprocal bases to both  good will gestures and / or offensive actions taken by other international trade players.

We are committed to do our best to achieve viable solutions, despite the fact that due to the EU Parliament elections the time limits to pursue our goal are extremely tight.