Emerging threats from the EU-US trade talks on conformity assessments and regulatory cooperation

US President Donald Trump’s threats of hostile trade measures against EU imports have helped start new trade negotiations. Worried over the prospect, the European Union will reconvene with the United States at the negotiating table to discuss a transatlantic trade agreement. This has led to concerns that such an agreement could lead to a lowering of standards, and criticism over a lack of transparency about what is being negotiated.

The report “Trading away protection”, published by Corporate Europe Observatory and Arbeiterkammer Europa, looks into how negotiations have developed so far, and finds that once again we see US negotiators and corporate lobbyists target key European precautionary measures in areas such as chemicals, pesticides, GMOs, and food safety, leading to fears of a lowering of standards.

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