EU to race UK for free trade deals

STRASBOURG, Sept 13, (RTRS): The European Union wants to launch and conclude free trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand in the next two years, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday, opening up a potential race with Britain.

If Juncker’s timeframe is achieved, the EU could nip in ahead of the UK, which is also courting both countries but cannot negotiate independent trade deals until it leaves the EU in March 2019.

Juncker said there was a good chance that the EU would agree the main elements of a new free trade with the Mercosur countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and of an updated trade partnership with Mexico by the end of this year.

“And today, we are proposing to open trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand,” Juncker told EU lawmakers.

“I want all of these agreements to be finalised by the end of this mandate. And I want them negotiated in the fullest transparency,” he added. The current Commission’s term of office runs until Oct 31, 2019.

The EU is seeking to capitalise on new trade opportunities in response to a more protectionist “America First” stance from the United States under President Donald Trump.

“We will not miss any opportunity to step in. Whatever space the Americans leave behind, the Europeans will occupy,” a senior US official said.

Juncker said, however, that while Europe favoured open commerce, it needed reciprocity from its trading partners.

“We have to get what we give,” he said.

The European Union was not a group of “naive free traders” and would always defend its strategic interests.