BRUSSELS — Answering pleas from European leaders desperate for a way to speed up economic growth, President Obama said on Tuesday that the United States would begin talks on a comprehensive trade agreement with the European Union.
Mr. Obama devoted a single sentence to the topic in his State of the Union address, but that was what proponents of a trade deal had been hoping for. His statement set the stage for talks to remove tariff barriers and regulatory hurdles between the United States and the European Union, which are already each other’s largest trading partners.
“And tonight, I’m announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union,” Mr. Obama said, in the process also giving the potential pact a name. He added, “because trade that is fair and free across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.”
Karel De Gucht, the E.U. trade commissioner, said completing such a trade deal could take about two years, according to an advance copy of remarks he was expected to make in Brussels on Wednesday.
Mr. De Gucht said that he wanted formal negotiations to begin before the summer and that his goal was “then to push ahead with them as quickly as possible.”
Some of the toughest negotiations are expected to focus on food and pharmaceutical regulations in Europe — but Mr. De Gucht made several pointed references to concessions that the Europeans would seek from the United States.
“First of all, we still need to dismantle any remaining traditional tariffs and then we need to make headway on market access issues in other areas, such as public procurement, services and investment,” said Mr. De Gucht, according to the advance copy of his remarks.
He said an example was “the barriers faced by European car manufacturers over their exports to the U.S.”
He added that automobile safety rules in Europe and the United States were similarly strict, so “perhaps it makes sense to look together at putting in place a system of mutual recognition.”
There are many sensitive and complex issues to overcome. On Tuesday, two powerful U.S. senators warned that any deal must open Europe to American farm products.
Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the highest-ranking Republican on the committee, said that a trade deal presented an “enticing opportunity.”
But in a letter to Ron Kirk, the U.S. Trade Representative, they also wrote, “Broad bipartisan Congressional support for expanding trade with the EU depends, in large part, on lowering trade barriers for American agricultural products.”
E.U. leaders, including Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, have been pushing for a trade deal as a low-cost way of stimulating their struggling economies. Both have called for a deal numerous times since Mr. Obama’s re-election. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and large companies like General Electric have also lobbied for an agreement.
There had been some frustration among supporters of a deal that more progress was not being made. A group of U.S. and E.U. officials has been preparing the ground for formal talks, but its report is several months late.
Mr. Kirk, the U.S. trade representative, said during a visit to Davos, Switzerland, last month that Mr. Obama was in favor of an agreement but wanted to make sure a treaty would overcome objections by some farm groups and be able to pass Congress.
Mr. Obama’s reference to talks about a possible free-trade pact with the European Union was a late addition to his State of the Union address, according to a senior administration official, because a U.S.-E.U. working group had sent recommendations to Washington only Tuesday that the two sides were close enough on various issues to pursue negotiations toward a comprehensive free-trade agreement, rather than a more limited one.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/business/global/obama-pledges-trade-pact-talks-with-eu.html?partner=rss&emc=rss