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The EU's ambassador to the United States,
Ambassador David O'Sullivan, was the keynote speaker at the GBD event on June 23, which focused on trade and the European Union. It was a content rich presentation, remarkable both for its detail and its clarity. For us, it was a speech with three major parts. It began with a strong statement on the value of trade, continued with an overview of the EU's very aggressive trade agenda, and concluded with a discussion of the EU's trade and investment relationship with the United States.
Today's featured quote was part of that middle section in which Ambassador O'Sullivan discussed the EU's dynamic and impressive trade agenda. That is the portion we will focus on in this short entry. But that discussion needs some philosophical underpinning. This is how Ambassador O'Sullivan began his discussion of the background for the EU's trade policies:
"Trade doesn't get a great press these days, but I continue to believe that it is probably the single most important driver of prosperity and wealth creation in all of our societies and as a vehicle for the social and economic progress which, ultimately, has to be the purpose of public policy."
Amb. David O'Sullivan
NEW EU AGREEMENTS
The EU already has a large tapestry of agreements, and there was some mention of those in the June 23 discussion with Ambassador O'Sullivan, notably the challenge that the UK will face in trying to replicate those arrangements once it is no longer part of the EU. In Ambassador O'Sullivan's opening remarks, however, the focus was on the agreements that are in the offing - either as wholly new arrangements or as efforts to upgrade existing agreements. In that context, he talked about the following countries:
Canada. The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) will soon enter into force on a provisional basis. "It is probably the most ambitious and the most comprehensive trade deal that we [the EU] have ever concluded with a fellow developed country."
Vietnam. The deal is done, the negotiations have been concluded and the agreement will come up for ratification soon.
Singapore. This deal was concluded a few years ago. It then became the subject of a case before the European Court of Justice. We will deal with that court case in a later entry. The point to note here is Ambassador O'Sullivan's expectation that this agreement could be ratified soon.
Mexico. As Ambassador O'Sullivan explained, "We have a free trade agreement with Mexico, but it's a first generation trade deal from the turn of the century. We're upgrading it, and that is moving very well."
Chile. With Chile too, Ambassador O'Sullivan said, the EU is in the process of upgrading a turn of the century agreement.
Japan. "We are engaged, and have been for several years [in negotiations] with Japan," Ambassador O'Sullivan said. "I understand it is likely that we will make progress on that deal in the coming months."
Australia and New Zealand. Here Ambassador O'Sullivan injected a personal note, saying: "I must say I am particularly pleased to have played my role in promoting the notion that we could do a trade deal with Australia and New Zealand," as that was something which "was thought unimaginable" in Brussels a few years ago. "We have now crossed that Rubicon," Ambassador O'Sullivan said.
China. With China the EU is negotiating a bilateral investment treaty.
Myanmar (Burma). An investment treaty is also being negotiated with Myanmar.
QUALIFICATIONS AND DIRECTION
Ambassador O'Sullivan concluded this segment of his speech both by acknowledging that complications are inevitable and by underscoring the EU's determination and directional consensus with respect to trade liberalization. He said:
"We may not get every deal done in that timeframe, but that is our objective. You need to understand that, notwithstanding the debate about trade, there is a very strong public and popular support in Europe for moving in that direction.
"There are caveats. There will be, as always, three steps forward, two steps back, but the direction of travel is clear, and there is a very strong consensus both in the Council of Ministers and in the European Parliament to go in that direction."
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