“We hope that after the drafting committee meeting and the other meeting in Riyadh we will finalise things,” he said. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said on February 25 restrictions on investment and access to the services sector continued to stand in the way of a free trade deal. But many of these issues were resolved at a meeting in Brussels, Attiya said. “I was pessimistic earlier (but) now I am optimistic because we have almost completed negotiations two days ago in Brussels,” he said. “There are only minor issues relating to services and investment and they are negotiable.”
