European Union - Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne’s participation in the Foreign Affairs Council (Trade) (Brussels, 9 November 2018)

The ministers will discuss the reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The minister of state will reaffirm President Macron’s determination – which he reaffirmed on September 25 at the UN General Assembly – to ensure that a roadmap for WTO reform is adopted at the G20 in Buenos Aires from November 30 to December 1, 2018. He will reaffirm that France supports the proposals put forward by the EU to modernize the WTO and its rules.

The ministers will also take stock of ongoing bilateral trade negotiations. They will discuss the EU’s trade relations with the United States. They will also exchange views on the current discussions in the context of the roadmap of July 25.

The ministers will deliberate on the proposed regulation on foreign direct investment screening, as well as the proposed horizontal regulation on bilateral safeguard clauses in the EU’s free trade agreements. The minister of state will reaffirm France’s support for these proposals, in particular the desire to ensure that discussions with the European Parliament on the draft regulation on foreign investment screening are completed before the end of the year in order to allow the regulation to be adopted at the beginning of 2019.