Germany.info : Information Services: Publications: The Week in Germany

Germany.info Home: Information Services: Publications: The Week in Germany

The Week in Germany: Current Affairs

February 23, 2007

The Transatlantic Marketplace: Single EU-US Market Could Boost Trade, Says Top German Official

Matthias Wissmann in the German Parliament, or Bundestag. Photos: Deutscher Bundestag

A single transatlantic market between the European Union and the United States could pave the way for a comprehensive opening of world trade, an influential member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union party said earlier this month. Merkel has said that she wants to use Germany's current presidency of the 27-member EU to harmonize US and EU laws and standards to boost investment and trade in both directions.

"In the long-run, a transatlantic market could become a pathfinder and a pace setter for an opening of world trade which would go beyond the Doha round (of global trade talks)," said Matthias Wissmann, chairman of the European affairs committee of the German Parliament.

However, creating a single EU-US market for investors was not meant as a substitute for the stalled Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, aimed at liberalising global trade. Wissmann said that such a transatlantic deal would not come at the expense of other countries. Instead, it could benefit both American and European economies while at the same time give a fresh impetus for boosting global investment flows and trade.

"It's not about fencing in Europe, it's exactly the opposite that we want," Wissmann told reporters. A transatlantic market would not be a fortress to keep out other countries but act as a magnet for foreign investors, he said. In addition, it would help the EU and the US to steel themselves for tough competition from booming Asian markets.

Wissmann with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Wissmann said he hoped that an EU-US summit scheduled for April 30 in Washington would see both sides take the first step towards creating "structures similar to those of an internal market". They would include drafting common standards for goods such as cars and pharmaceuticals, new rules for financial markets and intellectual property laws. If the US government pushes the plan, a single transatlantic market could be up-and-running by 2015, said Wissmann.

While Merkel has said that a transatlantic economic partnership would be a crucial part of the six-month German EU presidency, so far she has refused to set a date. "We want to talk about ever-closer economic cooperation. Our economic systems are based on the same values," she told the Financial Times ahead of a January 4 visit to Washington. "We should be looking for ways to keep developing these together at a transatlantic level."

According to European Commission figures, the EU-US trade relationship represents $1.7 billion dollars a day. Two thirds of the global investment flows into the US stem from Europe - some $60.1 billion in 2005. Together, the EU and the US represent some 60 percent of world trade. (TWIG/dpa)

Links:

German Chancellor Calls for EU-US Single Market
(The Guardian)

Opening Address by Angela Merkel at the World Economic Forum in Davos (24 January, 2007)

New Impetus for Transatlantic Trade (Government statement)

Back to The Week in Germany

Introducing
The German Information Center