[CTC] EU will propose joint regulatory body in TTIP talks

[Arthur Stamoulis]

 Politco EU
EU will propose joint regulatory body in TTIP talks

By Hans von der Burchard

Brussels will propose an institutional body for regulatory cooperation during talks with the U.S. next week, sources inside the EU’s Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership advisory group told POLITICO.

The new body would establish and supervise cooperation between regulatory agencies in the EU and U.S. in a bid to ensure that TTIP not only establishes a common approach for current norms and standards, but also future regulations — part of what analysts have termed a “living agreement.”

Critics of the trade pact argue that such an institution — where regulators from both sides comment on new legislation at an early stage — will undermine the power of parliaments because stakeholders could influence laws or water them down. In March, 45 NGOs signed a letter <http://politico.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e26c1a1c392386a968d02fdbc&id=eb21fe4166&e=156b094088> to Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström calling regulatory cooperation “a threat to democracy.”

Supporters of regulatory cooperation say that common standards help small and medium-sized companies. They also argue that it is important for the EU and U.S., and not rising economies with lower environmental or consumer protection standards such as China, to develop global standards.

“To ensure that regulatory cooperation works, you need to define institutional procedures,” said Reinhard Quick, head of the European office of the German Chemical Industry Association. “One thing is very clear: Whatever the institutional body may look like, the power of decision by the Council and European Parliament will not be infringed.”

The 14th TTIP round will take place in Brussels from July 11 to 15.

This article first appeared on POLITICO.EU <http://www.politico.eu/pro/eu-will-propose-joint-regulatory-body-in-ttip-talks/> on July 7, 2016.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20160707/b2e04b95/attachment.htm>