Officials take on business challenge

Date: 07/12/1995

By Elizabeth Wise and Fiona McHugh

OFFICIALS on both sides of the Atlantic have sprung into action in the wake of last weekend's summit in Madrid.

Spurred on by the private sector, which wants better trading conditions between the two giant markets, EU and US officials are racing to fulfil promises they made to improve trading conditions.

“It's a very dynamic environment,” said the Commission's Ove Julle Jorgensen, who, barely back from Madrid, has already convened meetings on several of the points on the transatlantic agenda.

Commission services in all fields have been instructed to work out timetables for implementing the action plan, and the same process is starting in Washington.

Both sides are working towards a June deadline, when they must present a progress report to EU and US governments at the next transatlantic summit.

“This is not just a one-off exercise,” said Julle Jorgensen. “This is the beginning of a new phase in the bilateral relationship.”

Commission and US administration officials also have another deadline - a 31 January meeting in Washington, when they must report to business leaders on which of the initiatives proposed by the business community can be implemented by their governments.

“We are taking certain recommendations and others we are analysing,” said a Commission official.

All this activity comes in the wake of a reunion in Seville last month where EU and US business executives drew up a list of trade-liberalising measures they want their governments to pursue.

They demanded a “precise and immediate follow up” on investment rules, mutual recognition of standards, regulatory cooperation and freeing up restrictions that limit their ownership of companies and utilities in each other's markets.

“Business is getting its act together and making its case heard,” said Peter Sutherland, the former GATT director-general who represented business leaders at the Seville talks through the Transatlantic Policy Network.

“US business has been more proactive in the areas of lobbying and in creating agendas,” he said, adding that European business had been gradually adopting the same stance and was now “more effective, more sustained and more focused”.

Sutherland said politicians should not worry about big business rising up in the form of lobbies, because such lobbies help break down the forces of protectionism in the form of state subsidies and government cartels. “It is extremely important that the broad voice of business, favouring deregulation, liberalisation and freer trade, be vocal, because otherwise we are left with the focused opposition of those who want to retain protectionism,” he said.

He insisted business participation in the drive towards freer trade depends on whether EU and US governments keep the promises made in Madrid. “We've delivered on our part of the equation, and it's for the politicians to deliver on theirs.”