TRANSATLANTIC ECONOMY – News Archive
July– December 2007

New Survey Finds European, American Favor Closer Trade Ties
5 December 2007 - The Guardian
A new survey by the German Marshall  Fund of the United States finds that two thirds of Americans and  Europeans polled support closer transatlantic trade integration. According to the survey majorities in both regions (64% in the US and 75% in Europe) favored international trade. Furthermore, 61% of Americans and 72% of Europeans said that they were enthusiastic about further trade integration. On the question of a transatlantic marketplace, 63% of Americans and Europeans supported free trade between both regions. The overall trends on trade continue to be positive according to Craig Kennedy, President of the GMF: "After more than five decades of robust trade  and  investment integration since World War II, Americans and Europeans see even further gains to be made by deepening the transatlantic marketplace." (Read More).

German Marshall Fund Survey: Persepctives on Trade and Poverty Reduction
5 December 2007 - German Marshall Fund
The German Marshall Fund has published the full results of their survey on trade in the United States and the European Union. The results show that support for better trade relations is broadly strong. The Fund's website provides an overview of the survey's findings as well as all of the key data. (Read More).

Joint Statement of the Transatlantic Economic Council
9 November 2007
Click here for the Joint Statement

United States and EU Progressing Towards Freer Trade
9 November 2007 - AP
As the first meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council got underway on Friday, both sides announced that they were proceeding positively on reducing non-tariff barriers to trade. Specifically, both Europe and the United States will mutually recognize accounting standards, which will make it easier for companies to report financial transactions. Also, both will adopt common standards for the regulation of the production of biofuels, an important sub-industry as both seek alternatives to traditional fossil fuel production. Guenter Verheugen, EU Commissioner for Industry, and Co-Chair of the Transatlantic Economic Council, highlighted the importance of such moves: "Business people told us today that they believe that non-tariff barriers cost businesses on both sides of the Atlantic three percent of (the economies)." (Read More).

Transcript of First Meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council Now Available
State Department Watcher Blog - 9 November 2007
The full-text of the first meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council, held on Friday November 9, 2007, is now available. The meeting was chaired by EU Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen and Al Hubbard, National Economic Council Chairman. Both men were optimistic that the TEC will now provide the necessary political guidance to allow both the United States and the European Union to reduce non-tariff trading barriers. By doing so, trade between the U.S. and the EU is expected to increase markedly. The importance of the TEC was underscored in a statement by Verheugen: "[We] must never forget the United States and the European Union together represent more than 60 percent of world's GDP. We, together, are by far the strongest economic region in the world. We are the regions in the world who have the strongest political and economic links. Trade between the U.S. and European Union is by far the biggest -- by far the biggest in the world. And yet, it is not fully exploited." (Read More)

EU Trade Chief Calls on U.S. to Help Strengthen the Global Economy
Peter Mandelson, "Europe and the U.S.: Confronting Global Challenges
8 November 2007
In a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson spoke about the issues facing the U.S. and the EU on the eve of the first meeting of the Transatlantic Economic Council, created as a forum for EU and US policymakers to discuss strategic economic matters. Mandelson stressed that: "Close ties between Europe and the United States are still the main foundation of world politics and the global economy." Today among the issues facing both sides are the persistence of non-tariff barriers to trade and the stalling of the WTO Doha Round of trade talks. In this context Mandelson stressed that: "The transatlantic economy is not only the bedrock of the global economy, it is almost – not quite, but almost - tariff free, especially for manufactures. This is increasingly true for all developed economies. So the agenda that preoccupies us is less about tariffs than non-tariff barriers, the rules that affect the flow of services, trade and investment. Product specifications. Accountancy standards. This is the sort of vital and detailed work that will increasingly dominate the EU-US trade agenda in the years ahead."  He also pointed out that the choices the TEC will make will have global repercussion as he stated: "I want to argue that the TEC can and should be the forum where the EU and the US set out our joint approaches to a world in which the economic and political order is changing very fast. The EU and the US account for almost a billion of the world's people, and the bulk of its wealth. While I do not believe that we can any longer dictate the global agenda, we nevertheless still have the collective weight and influence – and responsibility – to shape that agenda – and the answers that humankind is seeking to the shared problems we face". He called for an Atlantic Economic Charter: "I would argue that the preservation of an equitable economic globalisation should be the core political commitment at the heart of the transatlantic economic relationship. Equivalent, in its way, to the mutual commitment to democracy that the Atlantic Charter embodied six decades ago. So an Atlantic Economic Charter would read like this: promote open global markets as a source of development and opportunity – for our businesses and everyone else's. Resist protectionism at home. Work for a positive reciprocity that creates openness in all markets abroad. Welcome the big new players, and ensure that they have a stake in a rules-based multilateral trading system. Defend the rules, and use effective trade defence measures when people break them."
Mandelson said also that it is important to keep focused on the larger economic picture, especially as developing economies seek to assert leadership in multilateral economic institutions, particularly the World Bank, the IMF, and the G8. China is of course the one country on a lot of economists' minds.  He concluded that both sides must continue to embrace an agenda of free-trade and open multilateral cooperation: "Close cooperation between the EU and the US should not be perceived or presented as an attempt to organise economic change exclusively on their own terms or to block the rise of others, but as a way to underwrite a strong multilateral order based on cooperation and economic openness. Whatever the temptations of disengagement, protectionism or political insularity, they are not in our interests, nor in the interests of the changing world of which we are a part. On the eve of the Transatlantic Economic Council's first meeting, that is the joint message that should ring loud." (Read More)

European Union, India, See the Completion of a Free-Trade Pact Coming in 2008
The Hindu - 3 November 2007
Dr. Alexander Spachis, Minister-Counsellor for the Delegation of the European Commission to India says that, based on the progress of past trade talks, the European Union and India should finalize an agreement at some point in 2008. Further rounds of talks will be held in December, then February of 2008. Trade between the EU and India, one of the world's largest growing economies, is valued around US$40 billion (US$20 billion each in imports and exports). According to Spachis, that number could very well double with the success of a free-trade agreeement. (Read More).

Op-Ed Calls for European-American Unity on Currency Issues
Thomas Palley, "Triangular Trouble: The Euro, the Dollar, and the Remnibi,"
Palley, Founder of the Economics for Democratic & Open Societies Project, argues that European and American policymakers must work together to stabilize exchange rates. The rise of the Euro against the Dollar and East Asian currencies imperils healthy international trade. Unfortunately, both the United States and Europe are competing for Chinese manufactured goods. This has prevented a united front to convince China to float its currency. Palley concludes: "The implication is that fixing the structural problem of triangulation and remedying the failure to cooperate on the China currency question should be urgent policy priorities for both sides of the North Atlantic partnership." (Read More).

WTO Negotiators from U.S., EU call for sustained work on Trade Deal
18 September 2007 - Reuters
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson both called on Monday for further negotiations to solve the stalled Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks. Mandelson, speaking in New York, and Schwab, speaking in Washington DC, said that the crucial step forward involves a deal between developed and developing nations on manufacturing and agricultural subsidies. The developed world wants access for their industrial goods, which most of the developing world says will only occur with a complementary reduction in agricultural subsidies. The future of the Doha Round is essential for the health of the World Trade Organization and the global economy, says Mandelson:

"But every bit as important [as tarriff and subsidy cuts] is topping up economic confidence and strengthening the rules that bind world trade relationships." (Read More).

EU Trade Chief Echoes APEC Summit's Call for Trade Deal
11 September 2007 - International Herald Tribune
Peter Mandelson, the European Union's chief trade negotiator argued in the wake of a successful APEC summit that further agreements on the Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks should be made before the U.S. Presidential Election in 2008. Speaking before the European Parliament's international trade committee, he conveyed the difficulty created by U.S. domestic politics, which can sidetrack transatlantic and international discussions of subsidies in agriculture, manufacturing, and services. (Read More)

EU and Japan Launch Joint Research Towards Economic Partnership Agreement
August 30, 2007 - The Asahi Shimbun
Japan and the European Union took the first steps towards greater economic cooperation and integration by announcing a study by private experts who will analyze the possible creation of an Economic Partnership Agreeement (EPA) between the two. The EPA would reduce the tariffs the EU currently places on Japanese imports, while also paving the way for common regulations and standards in several industries, such as agriculture. Japan is said to be reacting to economic growth in neighboring South Korea, which is due to finalize a similar agreement by the end of the year. The EU is Japan's second-biggest export market behind the United States. (Read more).