The European Union might accept U.S.-made plastics as being safe enough to sell in the EU without them being subject to full-scale European chemical controls, under a planned EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Negotiations for what would be the world's largest bilateral trade deal are now underway and the European Commission has released its initial negotiating documents, which indicate that Brussels could be prepared to accept US standards under a mutual recognition formula with Washington in some cases, while on others it would agree a harmonization or approximation of technical regulations.
It would try to achieve "increased compatibility/convergence in specific sectors, including through recognition of equivalence, mutual recognition or other means as appropriate," said the paper, which said special commitments regarding chemical-based products could be written into the agreement.