The European Commission has opened a consultation with stakeholders relating to regulatory cooperation activities with the United States as a follow up to the 25 July 2018 meeting between the President of the US and the President of the European Commission. An interim progress report was published on 30 January, providing a detailed overview on the state of the work of the Executive Working Group, which was formed after the July meeting, and lists a number of concrete actions where regulatory cooperation can facilitate transatlantic trade such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices and cybersecurity, by lowering regulatory barriers. Similar progress reports will be published at regular intervals as the discussions with the US progress. Stakeholder input will be instrumental to making progress and identify solutions that allow us to facilitate trade while maintaining, if not enhancing, levels of regulatory protection.
The European Commission is inviting comments from all interested stakeholder groups on potential areas for regulatory co-operation with the United States. In particular, comments in the following areas are welcome:
- Conformity Assessment: a possible future agreement on conformity assessment aiming at a horizontal approach to facilitate the acceptance of certificates issued by the conformity assessment bodies of the other Party in a number of selected sectors such as electric and electronic equipment, machinery, medical devices, toys, recreational crafts, pressure equipment, construction products, measuring instruments etc. In this regard, the Commission would welcome input by stakeholders, in particular on the barriers exporters face and the difficulties that conformity assessment bodies face in seeking accreditation in the other party;
- Dialogue on standards: the EU and the US for historical reasons adopted divergent standards in many sectors, leading to high adaptation costs for exporters. In order to facilitate trade in the future and increase regulatory convergence, cooperation on standards would focus especially on areas where no standards exist yet. Additive manufacturing, robotics and technical textiles have been identified as possible areas of cooperation. The Commission is also interested in receiving stakeholder input regarding other possible standard areas where such cooperation could bring trade benefits.
- Regulatory cooperation in sectors: the Commission would want to receive stakeholder input on concrete initiatives for regulatory cooperation in sectors with the potential of facilitating bilateral trade, while fully respecting EU levels of protection.
The closing date for the consultation is 23 April 2019. The European Commission will make public all written submissions received in response to this call for proposals. Submissions should be made to: TRADE-EU-US-REG-COOP-CONSULTATION@ec.europa.eu.
