EU’s Chief TTIP Negotiator Releases Draft Chapter on Regulatory Cooperation

On February 10, 2015, the European Union’s (EU) chief negotiator on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement released the EU’s initial proposal for the “legal text” of the all-important regulatory cooperation chapter. The text was tabled for discussion with the United States in the negotiating round on February 6, 2015, and released to the public shortly thereafter. The text of the final agreement will be a result of negotiations between the EU and U.S. Among the 16 “Articles” in the chapter is Article 14-Establishment of the Regulatory Cooperation Body,” or RCB, to monitor and facilitate the implementation of the provisions in the TTIP chapter on regulatory cooperation. While short on details, the tone and general content of the chapter is encouraging. The EU’s initial draft contains two sets of proposals: one on good regulatory practices, including transparency, impact assessment, stakeholder participation, and how to make them operational, and another on steps to reinforce and make more effective current cooperation on types of legislation and regulatory initiatives that have a significant impact on EU-U.S. trade or investment. The EU Commission also released on February 10 a document titled TTIP and Regulation: An Overview. The document includes a section on horizontal provisions, including a section on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and a section on sectoral provisions, including “chemicals.” The documents are available at http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1230#regulatory-cooperation.