EU, U.S to step up pressure on ASEAN
EU, U.S to step up pressure on ASEAN
BRUSSELS (AFP): The European Union and the United States agreed yesterday to step up pressure on ASEAN and other emerging economies to open up their financial services sectors, EU Commission sources said after bilateral trade talks yesterday.
U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Cantor and EU Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan held two and a half hours of talks.
Brittan and Kantor held talks on a range of simmering trade disputes between the U.S. and EU as well as coordinating their approach to a number of global issues ahead of this week's OECD ministerial in Paris.
The two agreed on the need for a number of countries -- including the ASEAN block, Brazil and India -- to make faster progress on opening up their financial services industries to international competition, as they have undertaken to do by the end of June under the Uruguay Round world trade agreements.
"Time is running out if the deadline is to be met," Guildford said.
Commission sources indicated that South Korea would come under particular pressure this week in Paris with the issue being linked to the country's application to join the OECD.
Although the European Union and United States agree on the objective to step up the pressure for liberalization in the banking sector, the European Union is concerned that the United States will resort to reciprocal measures under its Most Favored Nation trading arrangements.
"Most Favored Nation is a right that should be extended to all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and we would not consider it right and proper for it to be used as a bargaining chip in bilateral negotiations," a commission spokesman said.
The European Union is also seeking to ensure that the concessions won by the United States in a bilateral accord with Japan are extended to all countries equally.
Brittan and Kantor both said progress had been made in resolving EU-U.S. disputes over banana imports, a compensation package for the trade the United States has lost because of the EU's enlargement to include Austria, Finland and Sweden, and a planned EU import ban on U.S. and Canadian pelts from animals caught by leghold traps.
"We discussed 17 issues in two and a half hours and I can truly say we made progress," Kantor said.
The European Union welcomed a commitment from Kantor that talks on liberalization of investment rules could take place within the WTO in parallel to those underway in the OECD.