The US and EU could set a date for the creation of a transatlantic trading zone at a summit in April 2007, the Financial Times reported a few days ago. This would be progress indeed, and is a tribute to the strategic thinking of Germany's Chancellor Merkel who proposed this initiative and has moved it to the top of the transatlantic agenda.
As the the Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has succinctly put it: "The EU and US are each other's main trading partners. Our economies represent 58 percent of Global GDP and 37 percent of world trade....a genuine transatlantic marketplace could increase GDP in both the EU and the US by more than 3 percent." The American ambassador to the the EU declared that the US President and his cabinet are politically committed to this project.
The political relationship between the EU and the US is in intensive care, continued efforts to strengthen the business ties will buy the politicians on both sides time to re-discover the importance of the transatlantic alliance.
2007 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome that began the powerful European common market. Let's celebrate by initiating concrete steps to move ahead with a transatlantic common market.
Showing posts with label Angela Merkel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Angela Merkel. Show all posts
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Bravo! Chancellor Merkel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants the EU and the U.S. to establish a single market through the harmonisation of EU and U.S. regulations on financial instruments and goods. This is an excellent idea and the American side should welcome it.
The $3 trillion EU-U.S. economy's depth and complexity has kept the transatlantic alliance from fraying further, so anything that strengthens these ties should be embraced.
Realizing that trade negotiations are stuck in the Doha round's machinations, Chancellor Merkel wisely proposed the two sides side-step these contentious issues and focus instead on making the financial and business infrastructure and plumbing work more smoothly. " Ms Merkel said she wanted to create a single market for investors, with common rules on intellectual property, financial regulation and even car emissions," The Guardian reported. "German experts believe a single EU/US financial market could be created by 2015, cutting trading costs by 60% and the cost of capital by 9%," the paper said.
"I feel it is very important that trans-Atlantic economic relations are intensified," the German newspaper Der Spiegel's blog reported from her keynote speech in Davos. "History shows that close trans-Atlantic economic integration is always the impetus for boosting economic growth," she said.
The Chancellor cited European investment in the American rail network in the 19th century and the post-World War II Marshall Plan as examples of successful trans-Atlantic integration. "The U.S. is still the European Union's most important trade partner, as it was in the past," she said. "We are also the most important investment partners for each other."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she wants to see "ever-closer economic co-operation" between the 27-nation EU and the U.S.", reported the BBC. The EU has achieved its historic success by working on an ever closer union, and Ms. Merkel astutely recognized that calling for a "big-bang" approach to U.S.-EU economic cooperation would be a difficult undertaking, but moving ahead a project at a time is a proven recipe for success, as the EU has demonstrated over the last 50 years.
All this was a prelude to the Chancellor's Washington, D.C. meeting with President Bush on January 13, 2007.
By all accounts the two leaders got along well. It would have been nice to see a high-level EU-U.S. working group set up to move Ms. Merkel's proposal to action. Perhaps this can still happen. All those who are concerned about the future of the transatlantic alliance should be calling their political representatives; business leaders ought to be up front supporting Ms. Merkel's initiative. American media needs to explain the importance of this development for American and European jobs and standards of living, and for strengthening the the EU-U.S. alliance.
The $3 trillion EU-U.S. economy's depth and complexity has kept the transatlantic alliance from fraying further, so anything that strengthens these ties should be embraced.
Realizing that trade negotiations are stuck in the Doha round's machinations, Chancellor Merkel wisely proposed the two sides side-step these contentious issues and focus instead on making the financial and business infrastructure and plumbing work more smoothly. " Ms Merkel said she wanted to create a single market for investors, with common rules on intellectual property, financial regulation and even car emissions," The Guardian reported. "German experts believe a single EU/US financial market could be created by 2015, cutting trading costs by 60% and the cost of capital by 9%," the paper said.
"I feel it is very important that trans-Atlantic economic relations are intensified," the German newspaper Der Spiegel's blog reported from her keynote speech in Davos. "History shows that close trans-Atlantic economic integration is always the impetus for boosting economic growth," she said.
The Chancellor cited European investment in the American rail network in the 19th century and the post-World War II Marshall Plan as examples of successful trans-Atlantic integration. "The U.S. is still the European Union's most important trade partner, as it was in the past," she said. "We are also the most important investment partners for each other."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she wants to see "ever-closer economic co-operation" between the 27-nation EU and the U.S.", reported the BBC. The EU has achieved its historic success by working on an ever closer union, and Ms. Merkel astutely recognized that calling for a "big-bang" approach to U.S.-EU economic cooperation would be a difficult undertaking, but moving ahead a project at a time is a proven recipe for success, as the EU has demonstrated over the last 50 years.
All this was a prelude to the Chancellor's Washington, D.C. meeting with President Bush on January 13, 2007.
By all accounts the two leaders got along well. It would have been nice to see a high-level EU-U.S. working group set up to move Ms. Merkel's proposal to action. Perhaps this can still happen. All those who are concerned about the future of the transatlantic alliance should be calling their political representatives; business leaders ought to be up front supporting Ms. Merkel's initiative. American media needs to explain the importance of this development for American and European jobs and standards of living, and for strengthening the the EU-U.S. alliance.
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