EU and US identify areas of disagreement

EU and US trade negotiators have identified most of the areas of disagreement on which they will work in an effort to conclude what would be the world’s biggest trade deal.

They fended off questions on the US spying scandal and the implications for the US knowing the EU positions in advance of negotiations, saying that surveillance and data privacy issues were being considered by a separate group in parallel.

Experts from both sides worked on 13 areas for the past week in Washington to identify those they need to find solutions for and technical work will continue up to the next formal meeting in Brussels on Oct 7.