EU rejects calls to grant US farmers ‘comprehensive’ market access

01/16/2019

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Jim Brunsden | Financial Times

Brussels finalises its negotiating stance for fraught trade talks with Washington.
 
Brussels has rejected US calls for Europe to grant “comprehensive” market access to its farmers as the EU prepares for fraught trade negotiations with Washington.
 
Pierre Moscovici, the EU’s economy commissioner, said on Tuesday that Brussels was finalising its negotiating stance for the talks, which were conceived last year by EU chiefs and President Donald Trump as a way to avoid a transatlantic trade war.
 
The European Commission held talks in Strasbourg that Mr Moscovici said focused on removing tariffs on industrial goods and smoothing approval processes for products entering each other’s markets. The draft negotiating mandates, which have yet to be published, will need approval from EU governments before Brussels can start formal talks with the US.
 
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