Representatives of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) will take part in a stakeholders' meeting on 15 November in Brussels in conjunction with the second round of trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States.

Among its members, VDMA represents the European Federation of Materials Handling and Storage Equipment (FEM).

The EU-US trade talks are aimed at reaching a landmark trans-Atlantic accord to lower tariffs and harmonise regulations. The second round is occurring on 11-15 November, and a third round for the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is planned in late December in Washington, DC.

"We will participate when the talks are in Washington," says Brian Feehan, president of the Industrial Truck Association (ITA), which represents the manufacturers of forklifts, tow tractors, rough-terrain vehicles, hand-pallet trucks and automated guided vehicles and their component parts and accessories suppliers who do business in Canada, the US or Mexico.

The topics of tariffs and free and fair trade relations were on the agenda in late October for a meeting of the Alliance of Industrial Truck Organizations in China. The alliance includes FEM, ITA, the Japan Industrial Vehicle Association and the China Industrial Truck Association. In addition to TTIP, a Trans-Pacific Partnership is in the proposal stage.

"We are continuing to make progress although there is nothing specific I can talk about," Feehan reports. "We are working on guiding principles to which all (four) groups would agree. We hope to complete the project by our meeting in 2014."

Feehan notes the China meeting was productive and that "we are moving forward as quickly as we can".