US, EU Consider Launching Bilateral Trade Talks

Bilateral trade talks between the US and EU could soon be on the horizon, with leaders from both sides agreeing on 28 November to establish a joint working group to examine this and other options for promoting growth in their respective economies.

US President Barack Obama, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, after meeting in Washington on Monday, affirmed their commitment to “making the US-EU trade and investment relationship - already the largest and most integrated in the world - stronger.”

The leaders directed the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) - a political body established in 2007 to advance economic integration and government co-operation between the EU and the US - to form a joint working group whose goal would be to “identify and assess options for strengthening the US-EU economic relationship, especially those that have the highest potential to support jobs and growth.”

The working group has been asked to address issues that are of a common concern for both parties and suggest strategies to enhance co-operation. Barriers to trade, including tariffs and tariff-rate quotas, and ‘behind the border’ non-tariff barriers, will all be examined during the course of the group’s work.

Likewise, both parties will be looking for opportunities to formulate compatible regulations and streamline standards. Instructions also request the working group to recommend specific policy implementation strategies, initiatives, or more advanced bilateral agreements.

The spectre of the WTO’s Doha round of trade talks also hovered in the background of the high-level meet, with leaders repeating the G-20’s call earlier this month for “fresh, credible approaches” toward finalising the ten-year negotiations. The US and EU have reportedly avoided pursuing bilateral free trade talks with one another in the past, in part due to not wishing to detract from the Doha process.

Karel De Gucht, the EU Trade Commissioner, confirmed that both sides were looking at negotiations that could cover a variety of measures, such as tariff eliminations on manufactured goods and agriculture, as well as liberalisation of the services sector.

The High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth would be chaired jointly by the US Trade Representative and the European Commissioner for Trade. An interim report from the working group is scheduled for June 2012; recommendations and conclusions will be due to US and EU leaders by the end of that same year.