Greek Economy Minister Giorgos Stathakis called for a temporary suspension of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) during his speech at the Foreign Affairs Council on trade in Bratislava on Friday.
Stathakis said that no progress has been made on sensitive European issues concerning reciprocity in the liberalization of public procurement, shipping issues, farm products with a geographical indication, protection of consumers against genetically modified products, and complex environmental protection issues.
He said TTIP is a major political issue for the European Union and that there are numerous open issues. “We need a new framework for the negotiations, a new start on a new basis and the right timing,” he added.
The meeting in Bratislava discussed the liberalisation of trade with some of the EU’s major trading partners, in particular the USA and Canada. Ministers also addressed the issue of how to modernise the EU’s current legislative framework of trade defence instruments against unfair trade and the expiry of certain provisions of China’s WTO Accession Protocol with regard to granting market economy status to China.
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