EU-Asia: European and Korean negotiators are scheduled to meet for the third time in September. In July, the EU offered to lift all tariffs on Korean exports provided that Korea makes a ‘similarly ambitious’ offer, which will provide the basis for the September talks. The EU has requested Korea to eliminate import duties on 95 percent of its agricultural tariff lines over three years, but Seoul wants to keep current tariffs on rice and 250 other products, or at least obtain a much longer implementation period for reductions. The future free trade agreement is billed as a ‘complement’ rather than an ‘alternative’ for multilateral Doha Round negotiations. The EU is particularly keen to remove restrictions on investment and to obtain WTO-plus concessions in services. It is also targeting Korea’s non-tariff barriers, including “regulations that are unnecessary, complicated, and may in some cases present greater obstacles than tariffs.”
EU-Latin America: Negotiations for an Association Agreement between the EU and five Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) will start this fall. According to the European Commission, Panama will be ‘fully involved’ in the negotiations once it takes a decision to join the Central American economic integration process. The parties have already agreed that a functioning Central American customs union must be in place before the Association Agreement can enter into force. Like all such EU agreements with developing countries, the pact will cover political dialogue, development co-operation and trade.
Despite persistent doubts about Bolivia’s commitment to a free trade agreement with Europe (Bridges Year 11 No.4, page 14), Association Agreement negotiations are also expected to kick off in September between the EU and the Community of Andean Nations, which comprises Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.