News

On 10 September in Brussels, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis participated in the European Union's Foreign Affairs Council meeting, during which the EU's trade and investment policy issues were discussed.

At the meeting, EU foreign ministers held talks regarding the EU’s free trade agreement with South Korea. The Council agreed to return to the issue, as Italy asked for the extension of the consideration period.

This agreement will facilitate the EU's trade with South Korea. The agreement provides for the progressive liberalisation of trade which will open better opportunities for the exports of Lithuanian goods and services to South Korea. During the negotiations, Lithuania received attention to some of its most sensitive issues concerning imports from South Korea, as a variety of market protection mechanisms (such as: the transitional period, quotas, etc.) were introduced.

The participants of the meeting in Brussels also discussed the EU's investment policy in the future. Under the Treaty of Lisbon, foreign direct investment (FDI) is a policy area of exclusive EU competence as part of its common commercial policy. Lithuania insists that the transition to the EU's common investment policy must ensure a maximum investment protection. Therefore, until the bilateral investment protection agreements are replaced by European agreements, all the agreements previously concluded by Lithuania shall remain valid in order to ensure the protection of investments.

EU ministers of Foreign Affairs and Trade discussed negotiations on the EU's Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Lithuania supports the EU’s intention to accelerate these long-lasting negotiations and to find possibilities of assisting the negotiating partners to understand the mutual benefits of EPA.

According to Minister A.Ažubalis, such agreements have to be ambitious, exhaustive, and compatible with the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, and based on mutual concessions. The EU has already demonstrated the biggest possible flexibility, therefore, the political will of the negotiating partners is essential for the conclusion of the agreements.