U.S., European Union To Expand Trans-Atlantic Investment Market
Washington—The United States and the European Union (EU) seem poised to move their economic integration to a new, higher level by lowering regulatory and other hurdles to mutual direct investment and integration of financial markets, according to official statements and experts' opinions.





(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington—The United States and the European Union ( EU ) seem poised to move their economic integration to a new, higher level by lowering regulatory and other hurdles to mutual direct investment and integration of financial markets, according to official statements and experts' opinions.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert M. Kimmitt recently said that to enhance trans-Atlantic economic ties, both sides have to “address and reconcile our systemic differences and thereby reduce obstacles to economic growth.”

Kimmitt welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s initiative on the trans-Atlantic market and said the United States and the EU should come to their April 30 summit meeting with a set of specific proposals to deepen their economic relations and develop a common approach to the global economy.

“Such an initiative recognizes that progress on economic and financial matters can help improve the overall political relationship between Europe and America, and can provide a strong foundation upon which to rely during periods of political turbulence,” Kimmitt told a conservative parliamentary group in Berlin on March 19.

Merkel has called on the United States and the EU to eliminate by 2015 nontariff barriers to direct investment, such as divergent financial regulations and technical standards. Speaking January 24 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, she pledged her commitment to “the equal treatment of cross-border and domestic investment.” ( See related article. )

In January, Germany assumed the rotational leadership of both the EU and the Group of Eight ( G8 ) nations.

INVESTMENT-DRIVEN RELATIONSHIP

Daniel Hamilton, director of the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Transatlantic Relations, told USINFO March 21 that the U.S.-European relationship is unlike trade relationships between other regions because it is investment-driven.

Trade barriers between both sides of the Atlantic are already low; the real issue is to remove regulatory requirements and other obstacles to free capital flows, he said.

According to Hamilton, during the first half of the current decade, Europe received more than 57 percent of U.S. direct investments abroad and accounted for more than 75 percent of foreign capital invested in the United States. Experts believe those direct investments could be even higher if both sides addressed, for example, the issue of differing corporate governance and accounting requirements. Meeting different sets of rules on the two sides of the Atlantic are expensive and cumbersome, investors say.

“Our goal is straightforward and clear: reduce regulatory burden on both sides of the Atlantic to the greatest extent possible, then converge, harmonize, or mutually recognize the fewer regulations that remain,” Kimmitt said.

Some worry that a further integration of the two largest economies could weaken ongoing efforts to lower trade barriers globally, a goal of the Doha round of the World Trade Organization negotiations. Kimmitt played down those concerns, however.

“Our common highest priority in the trade arena remains success in the Doha round,” he said. Kimmitt added that the success of the trans-Atlantic market initiative could even provide new momentum for Doha talks.

Many experts agree. Simon Serfaty of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told USINFO March 23 that similar worries were voiced during the European Union market integration, but they generally were not borne out.

Hamilton said that a strong trans-Atlantic economic “engine” could work for the benefit of global economy.

“If we are prospering with our core value-added partners, which are the Europeans, we will be better customers for goods from our [other] trading partners,” he said.

NEW TRANS-ATLANTIC AWARENESS

Both experts stressed a new awareness in the trans-Atlantic community of a connection between what Serfaty calls the “finality” of the U.S.-European economic bond and the underlying political partnership between the United States and the European Union. ( See related article. )

“We have to maintain the political ties that bind our commerce together,” Hamilton said.

“No longer is a divorce possible between the United States and Europe,” added Serfaty.

Kimmitt said, however, that efforts to deepen trans-Atlantic economic relations will be only as successful as Europe’s own efforts to establish a single market with fewer barriers for new companies, strong protections for intellectual property and greater competition in transportation and business facilities.

A “more fully realized single market,” he said, “would put Europe in a far better position to effectively engage the rest of the world.”

A transcript of Kimmitt’s remarks is available on the Treasury Department Web site.

( Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov )


....
It is clear to me what these people are doing, they are forming the "unions" to control. Because one world government with out them would be impossible. Then with these unions they are taking down everything that makes us a nation. The question that should be asked is how on earth are we going to force the third world to work and went freedom like us? They are going to pull us all down. This is a stupid idea, in will fail. So we are forming this north American union,,,In which is happening there is no question.

What else is the UN and African union are working together, also Asean is developing a close friendship. The whole world is heading that way to global government. This is sad, that we are going to loss our nation.