Both sides of the Atlantic would benefit from same trade-standards
Event Reports
There seems to be a bigger political will, said Peter Beyer, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the German Bundestag. "And maybe this is the good that we can get from the crisis." After some achievements in the last few years, an agreement may finally be attainable and signed by the end of 2014. "The glass is half full", said Jackson Janes, President of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, D.C. In London 2009, the 20 largest economies (G-20), agreed to "boost world trade and reject protectionism as a way of moving towards more stable and secure global commodities markets."
In February 2013, US President Barack Obama, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, announced to start the internal procedures necessary to launch negotiations on a trade agreement. And following Obama's State of the Union address in mid-February where the president backed this agreement, US Secretary of State John Kerry, during his recent visit in Berlin also marked out the free-trade agreement as a "key element in cementing transatlantic ties".
Caroline Atkinson, Senior Director in President Obama’s National Security Staff for International Economics, quoted from Obama's speech in Berlin 2008: "Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice - it is the one way, the only way to protect our common security and advance our common humanity."
All the panellist expressed the enormous 'flow of goods and services' between both continents. As the world's two largest economies the US and the EU maintain the world's largest bilateral trade relationship. American investments in Europe are three times higher than its investments in Asia. Vice versa, European investments in the US are even eight times higher than its investments in China and India combined. Nevertheless, the experts agreed that there is still room for improvement.
Same standards
For example, the American chicken is not allowed in Europe today because of different standards between both sides, said Atkinson. "The US has a major chicken industry, but can’t export it because of the different standards on food quality." It wouldn't only be in the interest of the US and the EU to move together, "but good for the rest of the world as compatible standards could cause a spillover effect on other nations worldwide".
A trade and investment agreement could bring significant economic gains. For the EU it could amount to 119 billion Euro a year and for the US to 95 billion Euro a year anually, Beyer said. "This is a win-win situation. Looking at it as in 'who is gaining more' is the wrong approach."
What now?
The EU's 27 trade ministers are now expected to give the Commission a mandate so that talks can start this summer. It seems Europe recognizes that they need a new ‘recipe for growth’ besides their austerity measures. Janes: Europe is on its way, with its political institution cohesion policy, but it is trying so in a much tighter schedule as how the US did it 150 years ago.” Atkinson added the regional political difficulties coming to the front. “For the US it has been easy, as we don’t have these difficulties of ‘who pays what”, but it is like in a real relationship she said: “It needs some work to be done. You can’t take it for granted.”
Topics
About this series
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, its educational institutions, centres and foreign offices, offer several thousand events on various subjects each year. We provide up to date and exclusive reports on selected conferences, events and symposia at www.kas.de. In addition to a summary of the contents, you can also find additional material such as pictures, speeches, videos or audio clips.