US-EU pact will not include public services

Washington

THE United States and the European Union have pledged not to include public services privatisation in their proposed trade pact, a sensitive issue on both sides of the Atlantic.

"We heard the concern that our negotiations should not require privatisation of public services - such as water utilities, education, national health care - and that they not limit the ability of governments to regulate those services as they see fit," said chief US trade negotiator Dan Mullaney, at the end of the seventh round of talks.