Governments of Austria, Luxembourg, and France proposed to re-start the negotiation process with the United States over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Such a decision was triggered by a complicated signing of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) by the European Union and Canada.
In his interview to Germany's Welt am Sonntag, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said that he believes that a new round of talks should be held after the presidential election in the United States. A clear mandate for the agenda of negotiations is needed, the minister stated.
Austrian Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner shares this opinion. According to him, the European trading policy can no longer remain the same and therefore the TTIP terms should be reviewed.
Asselborn added that it should be cleared up what parts of the agreement are within the jurisdiction of the European Commission and what parts should be agreed by national parliaments of the EU member countries.
The French authorities also support re-launch of the talks.
The EU and US have been discussing the TTIP agreement for over three years and have held 15 rounds of negotiations. Still, they have not arrived at a compromise on any of over 30 positions yet.
