Brittan wins colleagues over in bid to forge transatlantic trade deal

Date: 12/03/1998

By Mark Turner

TRADE Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan won round one in his bid to create a wide-ranging transatlantic marketplace this week, overcoming last-minute reticence amongst his Commission colleagues.

But his proposals still face a long haul, with the debate between national governments likely to be closely argued and the US almost certain to raise uncomfortable questions over agricultural trade and environmental protection.

Brittan hopes to remove technical barriers to EU-US trade “through increased mutual product recognition and/or harmonisation”, to elicit a “political commitment” to eliminate all industrial tariffs by 2010, to achieve free trade in services, and to liberalise investment, public procurement and intellectual property rules.

According to Brittan, the deal should lay down the “building blocks” for the next round of multilateral trade talks, providing a “shortcut which would save years”. A spokesman added that the benefits of a new transatlantic market-place to Europe would be in the order of 150 billion ecu annually after the first five years.

The UK welcomed the proposals with open arms. “The presidency is very interested in this bold initiative,” said a British official. “We welcome any proposals to boost the EU-US trading relationship, and will be holding early discussions in the Council of Ministers.”

London clearly hopes that talks could be launched at the EU-US summit in May, as they could then be presented as a high-profile success for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and highlight the UK's role as a bridge between the US and Europe.

But other countries such as France are more cautious about the proposals. Their concerns are reflected in Brittan's insistence that agriculture tariffs and the audio-visual sector should be left out of transatlantic talks. “We are pleased that a certain number of precautions - such as the exclusion of agriculture and audio-visual - have been taken. This was wise,” said a French official. “We will now study the proposals, which contain areas of interest to us such as trade in services. But we must make sure they are compatible with multilateral rules.”

Brittan is adamant that they are, and that the proposals will be welcomed by other World Trade Organisation members as a positive step in the development of global rules.

He said that negotiations would be “difficult, but not impossible”, stressing the proposals were an important show of Europe's growing strength on the world stage. “It is time for Europe to be aggressive, in the best sense of the word,” he said.