H. Lund, senior adviser in the Swedish Board of Trade, draws our attention to an interesting new report which contributes to one of the most challenging dimensions of regulatory cooperation. The following is a quote from a Board's news report:
Free movement of goods and services are increasingly dependent on preventing and eliminating technical barriers. Therefore, technical barriers to trade between the EU and the U.S. are a key issue in the ongoing free trade agreement negotiations, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is also established in the National Board of Trade's new report "Regulatory Co-operation and Technical Barriers to Trade within Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)".
The report has been produced as a contribution to the negotiations and highlights the regulatory aspects of TTIP. It outlines how the regulatory systems for trade in goods is structured in the EU and the U.S. and provides an analysis how TTIP relates to the WTO legal framework and existing free trade agreements. The report also includes an analysis of how TTIP can affect five selected sectors: automotive, information- and communication technology (ICT), chemicals, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
The challenge in the negotiations consists of finding the level of regulatory cooperation that offers clear benefits in terms of enhanced trade opportunities between the U.S. and the EU. This, while legitimate interests such as health and safety are maintained and while observing that trade conditions with third countries are not impaired. An important part of the analysis is to clarify the Swedish interests and estimate the extent to which they coincide with the interests put forward by various stakeholders in the EU.
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