Classification

Trade agreements differ depending on their content:

Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) - support development of trade partners from African,
Caribbean and Pacific countries

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) - enable reciprocal market opening with developed countries and
emerging economies by granting preferential access to markets

Association Agreements (AAs) - bolster broader political agreements

The EU also enters into non-preferential trade agreements, as part of broader deals such as Partnership
and Cooperation Agreements (PCAs).

Negotiations of trade agreements are conducted in accordance with the rules set out in Article 218 of
the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union.

Ongoing trade negotiation processes between EU and third countries include:

Japan - negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement

MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) - part of a new Association Agreement

Mexico - modernisation of the existing Global Agreement

Chile - an update to the current Association Agreement

Australia and New Zealand - negotiations for Free Trade Agreements with both countries.

Trading principles

Anti-discrimination

Most-favoured nation - countries cannot normally discriminate between their trading partners

National treatment - imported and locally-produced goods should be treated equally

Predictability

Fair competition

The Multilateral Investment Court

Main negotiations issues

The negotiations have so far included the following topics: anticorruption, competition, customs and
trade facilitation, dispute settlement, energy and raw materials, good regulatory practices, investment,
intellectual property rights (including geographical indications (GIs)), mediation, public procurement,
rules of origin, small and medium-sized enterprises, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, state-owned
enterprises, subsidies, technical barriers to trade, trade in goods, trade in services, trade remedies,
transparency, and trade and sustainable development (TSD). The Commission has published 35
negotiating text proposals.

The parties have finalised at least eight chapters, including on trade in goods, trade and sustainable
development, and good regulatory practices. Some of the main obstacles to a final agreement are
reported to include disagreements on investment protection, public procurement, market access, rules
of origin and geographical indications. It is unclear if free data flows will be included in the final
agreement.

Some civil society organisations have criticized plans to include an investment court system, the alleged
lack of transparency in the negotiations (including the absence of civil society involvement), and the
alleged absence of human rights conditionality. Other criticisms from civil society have focussed on the
alleged precedence of EU commercial interests over the protection of human rights and social and
environmental standards in Mexico. It remains to be seen if such concerns are justified.

The seventh round for the modernisation of the trade part of the EU-Mexico Agreement

took place on 12-22 December.

Overall, there was important progress in the round. The Parties reached agreement on the

text of the following chapters:

• Trade in Goods (main text),

• Technical Barriers to Trade,

• Good Regulatory Practises,

• Transparency,

• Energy and Raw Materials,

• Trade and Sustainable Development,

• Sanitary and Phytosanitary Matters and

• Customs and Trade Facilitation

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2018/january/tradoc_156557.pdf