Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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270. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the progress made to date in the trade talks between the EU and the USA; if he will outline the potential benefits to Ireland of a successful conclusion to those talks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30789/13]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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275. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the position regarding talks between the EU and the US on a trade deal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30492/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 270 and 275 together.

Following considerable preparatory work by the Irish Presidency and intensive discussions at the EU's Trade Council that I chaired on 14 June, EU Trade ministers reached agreement on a mandate for the Commission to negotiate a comprehensive trade and investment agreement with the United States, the "transatlantic trade and investment partnership"(TTIP). The negotiations are scheduled to start on 8 July 2013. While it is far too early to anticipate the eventual negotiated outcomeof the Agreement, the scope of the Council's negotiating directives to the EU Commissionis sufficientlywide to maximise the potential benefits of an Agreement for the EU and its Member States.

Studies by the EU Commission and other European bodies indicate that a comprehensive Trade and Investment Partnership could over time boost EU GDP by 0.5% per annum and help create approximately 400,000 jobs in the EU. Given the current very low level of economic growth in the EU and in Ireland, this will be a significant injection of economic activity and consequently of new job opportunities. Based on those assessments, if Ireland simply benefited in proportion to the size of our economy within the EU, a comprehensive trade and investment partnership could over time provide gains to Ireland in the order of €800million per annum in increased GDP, and 4,000 new jobs.

As formal negotiations have yet to begin, it is not possible to estimate in detail the impact on Ireland until there is greater clarity about any exchange of offers, the scale of the possible long term gains will have a positive impact on Ireland given our close trading and investment relationship with the U.S. In addition, many Irish exporters are part of European supply chains where their exports to the UK, Germany or elsewhere to the EU, feed into Europe's exports to the U.S. While tariffs are already low on trade across the Atlantic, the objective of abolishing even these will bring benefits to business in the short term. Tariffs that average about 3% on EU/U.S. trade may appear insignificant but even at this low level they constitute an unnecessary tax on trade with the U.S. by both foreign and indigenous companies.

The major benefits of course will arise from reform of regulatory restrictions applied by both economies. Many of these, such as the cost of having to meet two sets of technical specifications for consumer and other products, add extensive costs to exporters. In the longer term, if the TTIP brings about a regime whereby exporters would only need to meet one set of product compliance rules, it would save significant costs for exporters of medical devices, pharmaceuticals and chemicals among others. Ireland's agribusiness sector would benefit if rules are changed that currently hold back our food exporters from being able to freely sell into the U.S. market, in the same way as they can into the EU.