The Council of the European Union issued mandates to the European Commission today for the negotiation of free-trade agreements with the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), India and South Korea. In addition to this, mandates for the negotiation of Association Agreements with Central America and the Andes Community were adopted.
Michael Glos, Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, welcomed the Council’s decision: “Facilitation of market access to non-EU countries plays a key role in enabling European companies to utilise their opportunities on the world’s markets in fair competition. The free-trade agreements with the emerging Asian economies which are now to be negotiated form an important element of this. The free-trade agreements should be comprehensive and should be fully compatible with the rules of the WTO. Our objective is to achieve far-reaching trade liberalisation which embraces new issues like investment, public procurement and competition.”
“The free-trade agreements must also strengthen intellectual property rights for the European companies,” underlined Glos. “With clear and transparent rules, we particularly wish to give small and medium-sized companies the opportunity to pursue their business interests even better and to enter into new co-operation with our Asian partners.”
At the same time, Glos pointed out that a successful conclusion to the WTO negotiations in the context of the Doha Round remains the EU’s prime objective. “Trade liberalisation in the multilateral framework brings advantages for all sides,” said Glos. “This is particularly true of export-oriented small and medium-sized firms. However, the network of bilateral free-trade agreements in the Asian region is becoming ever denser. This creates a danger that competition will be distorted for European companies.”
