U.S., EU to exchange revised tariff offers in Atlantic trade talks

The United States and the European Union (EU) are expected to exchange revised tariff offers this week as the 11th round of the Atlantic free trade talks kicked off Monday in Miami, Florida.

During the weeklong negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), both sides are expected to have proposals covering 97 percent of tariff lines, holding back the remaining 3 percent for the tough final negotiations on tariff elimination, according to the U.S. political news website Politico.

The two sides exchanged initial offers in February 2014, with the EU accusing the United States of failing to match its level of ambition, Politico reported, adding that "there have been many twists and turns both inside and outside the talks" since they started more than two years ago.

The U.S. and EU leaders had initially set a timetable for completing an agreement for TTIP by late 2014. But the negotiations moved very slowly amid rising political and public resistance to the deal on both sides.

Supporters in Europe believed that the deal will boost exports, create jobs, fuel growth and strengthen Europe's voice in global trade rules, while opponents feared that Europe's strict standards on environment and food safety will be eroded, and local governments' regulation power in dispute settling be weakened.

The Business Coalition for Transatlantic Trade (BCTT), a group spearheaded by U.S. business associations to promote the TTIP negotiations, has expressed frustration at the Atlantic talks so far.

"Yet, two years on, repeated expressions of political support for an ambitious outcome are not translating into progress at the negotiating table," the coalition said in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and the EU's Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom last month.

"Too many red lines are being drawn, and political decisions needed to break impasses at the negotiating table have not been forth coming," the coalition said, urging negotiators to "halt the drift" in the talks by "insisting on substantial progress on all issues" from both sides during the current negotiating round in Miami.

Some trade experts said one of the reasons the TTIP talks have not made much progress is because the Obama administration has made concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations as top priority.

As the TPP deal has been reached by trade ministers from the 12 Pacific Rim countries earlier this month, U.S. and EU business groups are expecting negotiators to accelerate the TTIP talks in the next few months, in a bid to wrap up the talks before Obama leaves office in January 2017. Endi