The world's two largest economic powers would like to join forces via a free-trade agreement. Yet the hurdles are high. The EU and US are aiming not just for a small trade solution, but for the largest proposal of all.Economists, politicians and entrepreneurs are practically foaming at the mouth. The planned all-encompassing free-trade agreement between the US and EU would spur growth on both sides of the Atlantic. It would also ensure that the global economic rules of the future are put in place by western countries - and not China.
Economically, a broad free-trade agreement would fundamentally redraw the map of worldwide trade. Goods and services traded between the EU and US constitute the largest bilateral economic partnership in the world. Daily, they amount to more than 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 million). The combined GDPs of the US and EU account for approximately half of worldwide economic output and one-third of the global flow of goods. According to EU estimates, a comprehensive free-trade agreement between the EU and US would raise the EU's GDP by one-half percent, or 66 billion euros per year. A similar increase is expected for the US.
Within Europe there is broad political support for a trans-Atlantic free-trade agreement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron have already spoken out in favor of the project. After a task force reported on the opportunities and implications of a Euro-American trade agreement last summer, not only the President of the EU Commission, Manuel Barroso, gave signals of approval, but also US President Barack Obama.
Note EU-Digest: an agreement of this magnitude would be a major step in strengthening the Atlantic Alliance but it will have to be an agreement not of dominance by one partner over the other but one which will require mutual consent on every level, including environmental and defense issues.
Read more: EU and US plan world's biggest trade bloc | World | DW.DE | 07.02.2013
No comments:
Post a Comment