Last week, USTR hosted the first round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations in Washington D.C. A statement by the EU indicated that during the talks, the negotiating groups “set out respective approaches and ambitions in as much as twenty various areas,” but there have been few details. A round of stakeholder consultations took place on July 10, which was also the first day of meetings by the intellectual property negotiating groups.
Also last week, leaked TTIP documents began circulating.
La Quadrature du Net posted a leaked a document from the EU indicating they are considering the negotiation of ISP liability: “The EU and the United States should agree to promote the development of electronic commerce between them, in particular by co-operating on the issues raised by electronic commerce. Among others, the potential issues for cooperation could include… the liability of intermediary service providers with respect to the transmission, or storage of information.”
(On the other hand, an F.A.Q. on TTIP by MEP Marrietje Schaake says that “the European Commission has made it clear it does not want to include online copyright enforcement provisions in TTIP.” It quotes Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht saying “ACTA, one of the nails in my coffin. I’m not going to reopen that discussion. Really, I mean, I am not a masochist. I’m not planning to do that.”)
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy had recently released leaked “Initial Position Papers” from the EU, including one on pharmaceuticals. The pharmaceutical position paper indicated that the EU wants TTIP to include language on the approval of biopharmaceuticals, which would likely involve a term of data exclusivity: “Both Parties could commit on establishing functioning systems for the authorisation of biosimilars. The FDA could benefit from the experience of EMA that has already completed opinions on 16 biosimilars… An advantage of this approach would be the potential increase of approved biosimilars in both markets. In addition, US and EU could shape the international approach for the review/authorization of biosimilars.”
This week there will be trade events on both sides of the Atlantic where TTIP will be discussed. The European Commission will hold an ad hoc meeting and discussion on TTIP tomorrow, July 16. The U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means will hold a hearing on the President’s trade agenda on Thursday, July 18, at which TTIP will be among the top of the items on the agenda.
