‘Commercial Ties,’ ‘Economic Growth’ Top EU/U.S. Trade Talk Agenda

Marjorie Chorlins, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Director for Europe, issued a statement itemizing the Chamber’s views on the opening round of negotiations between the U.S. and Europe for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

She made the following points as being central concerns to be addressed in the negotiations:
— No priority facing our nation is more important than spurring economic growth and putting Americans back to work. Expanding world trade can play a central role in reaching these goals. In this context, TTIP no doubt will be the most significant trade agreement in years.
— Deepening our commercial ties with the EU has the potential to ignite significant new trade flows, accelerate economic growth, and generate high-quality jobs.
— We applaud the initiation of these historic negotiations this week, and urge that U.S. negotiators to strive for a comprehensive, ambitious, high-standard agreement.
— By ‘comprehensive,’ we mean that the agreement must cover trade in industrial goods, food and agricultural goods, services, investment, procurement, protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), and regulatory issues. There should be no exclusion of specific sectors or commodities.
— By ‘ambitious,’ we mean that negotiators must find creative ways to address emerging opportunities in the 21st century economy, such as trade in digital goods and services, as well as longstanding challenges in such areas as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) barriers, technical barriers to trade (TBT), and regulatory barriers to trade and investment.
— By ‘high-standard,’ we mean that the TTIP must set the highest possible standards for others to emulate in such areas as investment, intellectual property rights, competition policy, and treatment of state-supported enterprises and localization requirements.
— The Chamber strongly supports the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. It has the potential to strengthen the U.S. economic recovery, generate good jobs, and fortify the global rules-based trading system.
— For the United States to achieve the goal of a true 21st century agreement with state-of-the-art rules, our negotiators must hold fast to the goal of a comprehensive, ambitious and high-standard accord. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce stands ready to assist the U.S. negotiating team in achieving this goal.

Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Topics USA Commercial Lines Europe