New Year, new hope as TTIP plans to bring EU-US cosmetics more in-line

By Andrew MCDOUGALL

- Last updated on GMT

New Year, new hope as TTIP plans to bring EU-US cosmetics more in-line
The European Commission published new texts setting out EU proposals for legal text in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) it is negotiating with the US, with a new cosmetics factsheet announcing plans for regulators to work more closely together.

This is the first time the Commission has made public such proposals in bilateral trade talks and was done so in the hope it reflects its commitment to greater transparency in the negotiations.

“I'm delighted that we can start the new year by clearly demonstrating through our actions the commitment we made to greater transparency just over a month ago,”​ says EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.

​[The] publication of our specific legal proposals in the context of TTIP marks another first in EU trade policy.”

Regulating cosmetics

EU and US regulators already cooperate with each other in the area of cosmetics, even though the two regions have different systems for regulating cosmetics.

The Commission claims that TTIP could benefit consumers and industry by enabling regulators to work even more closely with each other; on things like checking the safety of new, better products, so consumers can buy them sooner than at present.

In the cosmetics part of the agreement, the EC has announced it wants to agree to work more closely on scientific safety assessments and on alternative methods to animal testing, pushing for the progressive phase-out of animal tests worldwide.

The new factsheet also highlights the desire to improve technical cooperation between regulators to facilitate US approval of UV filters already authorised in the EU, and to work together on labelling using international practices.

There is also a plan for regulators to work together to create a basis for jointly developing state-of-the-art regulations on new areas not yet fully regulated, and to collaborate in new areas such as allergen labelling and market surveillance.

Proposals

The so-called 'textual proposals' set out the EU’s specific proposals for legal text that has been tabled in the proposed TTIP to be negotiated with the US.

They set out actual language and binding commitments which the EU would like to see in the parts of the agreement covering regulatory and rules issues.

A 'Reader's Guide', explaining what each text means, factsheets and a glossary are also being published so that non-experts can understand the proposals.

“I'm particularly pleased that we're including explanations in non-technical language to go alongside the legal texts,”​ adds Malmström.

“It's important that everyone can see and understand what we're proposing in TTIP and – just as importantly – what we're not.”

The Commission intends to publish further texts and proposals in the course of the negotiations, as they become available. The published texts can be seen here.

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