"Ninety nine per cent of trade relations between the USA and the European Union are totally unproblematic, and we want to clear away the problems with the remaining one per cent. The Transatlantic Business Dialogue provides an excellent forum for this purpose", Minister for Economics and Labour Martin Bartenstein, President of the EU Council, said at a joint press conference with Martin Broughton (co-chairman of the TABD and chairman of British Airways), Michael Klein (co-chairman of the TABD and CEO Global Banking of Citigroup), Günther Verheugen (Vice-President of the European Commission), Peter Mandelson (EU Commissioner for External Trade), David Sampson (US Deputy Secretary of Commerce) and Veit Sorger (President of the Federation of Austrian Industry and Vice-President of UNICE) on the occasion of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) at the Federation of Austrian Industry.
Bartenstein pointed to the positive development in trade between the EU and the USA. In 2005 the volume of trade including services amounted to more than EUR 650 billion. Trade in goods was worth EUR 414 billion last year, which represents an increase of 5.4% compared with the previous year. 2006 began with a promising increase of 15% in the first quarter. This development also has a strong knock-on effect both directly and indirectly on the labour market. It is therefore extremely important to talk also about EU-US economic relations at the EU-US Summit, the minister said.
An important area calling for closer transatlantic cooperation according to Bartenstein is the energy sector. For large energy consumers such as the EU and the USA, the crucial issue here is security of supply. Energy dialogues with large producers such as OPEC or Russia have a key role in this. The objective is to improve security of supply and energy efficiency on both sides of the Atlantic.
A central theme of the TABD is joint action by the EU and the USA on product piracy. Action in this area is urgently needed, Bartenstein said. The current situation was wholly unsatisfactory. According to some estimates, counterfeit products account for up to seven per cent of all world trade. The number of counterfeit products confiscated at the EU borders increased more than tenfold from 10 million to over 103 million between 1998 and 2004.
The EU and USA intend to pursue a common strategy in future to improve protection of intellectual property. Among other things, a working group (IPR-Working Group) has been set up to coordinate the measures. Customs and border controls will be tightened in order to enforce intellectual property rights in third countries.
In the regulatory area, too, increased cooperation between the EU and the USA has gained considerable momentum under the Austrian Presidency. The establishment of the Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation Forum has created a new platform with the aim of achieving greater compatibility and harmonisation of regulations.
The TABD traditionally takes place in parallel with the EU-US Summit. At present 33 large EU and US companies are members of the TABD. They support barrier-free transatlantic trade and this year, too, have presented a number of recommendations to the Heads of State or Government of the EU and USA.
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