EU and US negotiators are meeting in the context of the sixth Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations round. Negotiators from both sides are debating an ambitious agenda that should, in the event of an agreement, not only remove trade barriers in a wide range of economic sectors, but also tackle non-customs related trade barriers, such as differences in technical regulations, standards and approval procedures.

Furthermore, the TTIP negotiations look at opening markets for services, investment, and public procurement. ECSA welcomes the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks and hopes for an ambitious agreement in which maritime transport and its specificities will be duly taken into account. EU shipowners support the liberalisation and promotion of EU-US trade, both in services and in goods, as the harmonisation of the EU and US markets will play a key role in fostering trans-Atlantic trade.

This will in turn stimulate maritime transport, which will effectively underpin the increased exchanges and act as a vector for the ensuing commercial activity between the two trade partners. However, restrictions on domestic cargoes, so-called cabotage rules, still firmly exist in the United States. This results from the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, better known as the ‘Jones Act’.

http://www.ecsa.eu/9-latest-news/152-ecsa-looks-forward-to-fruitful-eu-us-trade-negotiations