EU/US POLITICO-ECONOMIC RELATIONS: IN NEED OF TRANSFORMATION?

Abstract

This paper advocates the transformation of EU/US politico-economic relations into a consolidated, integrated New Transatlantic Partnership. The centrepiece of the transformed relationship would be a completed New Transatlantic Marketplace (NTM) outlined by the New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA) and taking shape under the Transatlantic Economic Partnership (TEP).
Completion of the emerging NTM requires four major measures: 1. removal of regulatory obstacles to trade in goods; 2. a free market in services; 3. complete liberalisation of government procurement; 4. abolition of all remaining industrial tariffs. The main hurdle are regulatory barriers. Their removal involves politically sensitive domestic policy issues. To achieve a breakthrough replacement of the hitherto applied MRA-approach by the ‘once approved, accepted everywhere’ principle is deemed necessary. Instead of the bottom-up, building-block approach a top-down, overarching agreement is being called for. A completed NTM would be flanked by and closely interlinked with the ‘foreign policy’ and the ‘home affairs’ components of the NTA.
A New Transatlantic Partnership seems feasible because EU/US political-economic relations have already evolved over time into an almost equal partnership due to steady US support for European integration, a new holistic concept of security, geopolitical change in Eastern Europe, and a strong communality unparalleled in other international relations.
EU/US politico-economic relations constitute the most important relationship in the world today and are crucial in solving global problems. A viable and stable international system can only be maintained through ‘ever closer cooperation’ between the EU and the US. As all measures taken to transform EU/US relations would be WTO compatible, the global trading system only stands to benefit from a more integrated, strengthened New Transatlantic Partnership.