EU Commissioners Likely To Reject Transatlantic Trade Body

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

05 February 2004

According to documents seen by the EU Observer, the European Commission is currently considering an idea tabled by the Spanish for a transatlantic trade body designed to thaw the increasingly frosty trade relations between the EU and the US and work on the removal of tariffs.

In a letter drafted by the Spanish government, Prime Minister Jose Maria Anzar asks the President of the Commission Romano Prodi, to consider the establishment of a “high-level bilateral economic committee” in time to direct trade issues by 2014.

The Spanish initiative then envisages the committee formulating an action plan to remove obstacles to transatlantic trade within 12 months. It also calls for the drawing up of a timetable for the removal of barriers in the telecoms, technology, air transport and financial services sectors by 2010, according to the EU Observer.

However, the report suggests that Commissioners are unreceptive to the proposal, fearing that such a large bilateral trade alliance would represent a further nail in the coffin of the WTO’s multilateral trade agenda.

Recommended