Ms Sineád McPhillips:

Reference was made to the trade negotiations. There should not be any direct impact from the Canadian trade agreement in place under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement or the US negotiations under the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which are ongoing. There should be no direct impact in respect of the EU's system. This is because one of the principles of the trade negotiations on the EU side is the equivalence principle. This does not mean a mutual harmonisation of standards but an equivalence, and it is always up to the importing side to determine whether equivalent standards have been met by the exporting side.

If the COM document on the TTIP negotiations went through as originally proposed by the Commission the US side might have concerns about the implications in the sense that rather than exporting to a single market in the EU, there could be different rules for different member states. As Mr. Ryan has explained, there is a long process that a COM proposal must go through and there are several stages to be reached. This is something that will come up in the TTIP negotiations. However, the TTIP of itself will not influence the outcome of the COM proposal. That will be a decision for the EU.