U.S. Chamber, European Business Call for Removing Transatlantic Trade Barriers

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and BUSINESSEUROPE have issued the following statement in a letter signed by twelve U.S. and European business associations to President Obama and EU Presidents Van Rompuy and Barroso, calling for urgent action to create a barrier-free transatlantic market to drive job creation and economic growth in the United States and Europe.

A bulletin released by the USCC gave excerpts from the letter as follows:
“We, the representatives of the U.S. and European business communities, call upon our leaders to move swiftly to deepen the transatlantic economic and commercial relationship through ambitious trade, investment, and regulatory policy initiatives.

“We commend the decision by the U.S.-EU Summit in November 2011 to establish the High-Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth chaired by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht. The agenda of the Working Group should be far-reaching, covering, for example, tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods and services, investment, regulatory cooperation, intellectual property protection and innovation, public procurement, cross-border data flows, and business mobility.

“We believe that the Working Group provides an unparalleled opportunity to strengthen our economies, enhance the global competitiveness of our firms, and, in so doing, reinforce our joint capacity to maintain and modernize the rules-based international trading system which has benefited the global economy over the past 60 years.

“The transatlantic business community is committed to working with you to develop creative solutions to eliminate trade, investment and regulatory barriers which undermine the ability of our companies and workers to expand economic growth and create jobs.

“We urge President Obama and Presidents Van Rompuy and Barroso to grasp the opportunity of the May 19-20 G8 Summit to be ambitious and to commit to an accelerated launch of comprehensive transatlantic trade, investment and regulatory negotiations this year. The American and European people should not have to wait for the boost to growth and jobs that these initiatives will bring.”

The full text of the letter is available.

Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Topics USA Legislation Europe