U.S. and Europe Trade Deal Honeymoon

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership know as TTIP, is in the process of becoming the biggest trade agreement ever negotiated. The current first five months for 2013, U.S. trade in goods with European Union, has over a 50 billion dollar deficit for the US and is on pace for another record shortfall. Therefore, most economic observers would naturally view that the United States is very eager to increase their share in the “Holy Grail” of Free Trade for the international corporate economy. The first week-long round of talks concluded with a press release.
“Working throughout the week, the negotiating groups have set out respective approaches and ambitions in as much as twenty various areas that the TTIP – the biggest bilateral trade and investment negotiation ever undertaken – is set to cover. They included: market access for agricultural and industrial goods, government procurement, investment, energy and raw materials, regulatory issues, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, services, intellectual property rights, sustainable development, small- and medium-sized enterprises, dispute settlement, competition, customs/trade facilitation, and state-owned enterprises.”
Setting out the broad goals and objectives for TTIP is in the Fact Sheet: United States to Negotiate Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union.
“A successfully negotiated Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership would aim to boost economic growth in the United States and Europe and add to the over 13 million American and European jobs already supported by transatlantic trade and investment. In particular, the Partnership would aim to:
– Further open markets to grow the $459 billion in U.S. goods and services exports to the EU, our largest export market, which already supports an estimated 2.4 million well-paying American jobs.
– Strengthen rules-based investment to grow the world’s largest investment relationship. The United States and the EU already maintain a total of nearly $4 trillion in investment in each other’s economies, supporting nearly 7 million jobs.
– Tackle costly “behind the border” non-tariff barriers that impede the flow of goods and services trade.
– Seek to significantly cut the cost of differences in regulation and standards by promoting greater compatibility, transparency, and cooperation.
– Enhance cooperation on the development of rules and principles on issues of global concern, including on market-based disciplines for State-Owned Enterprises, combating discriminatory localization barriers to trade, and promoting the global competitiveness of small- and medium-sized enterprises.”
Wow, why would anyone challenge, resist – much less protest – the lofty vision for the integrated global economy. Is it not the age of the New World Order and only flakey anti WTO radical extremists oppose the seamless technocrat consolidation of all means of production and the buying and selling experience? Maybe the substance of the opposition comes with the participants who are doing the negotiations.
Pragmatically anticipated, is that such a comprehensive trade agreement will not only be difficult to iron out, but might well prove to be one container ship too far to sail. One such damper on the initial enthusiasm out of the Washington meeting did not take long to emerge, as reported in the article, EU-U.S. Free Trade Talks: A Long Road Ahead.
“Unfortunately for both the EU and U.S., more hiccups like the EP’s call for exemptions are expected en route to completing bilateral negotiations aimed at breaking down trade barriers supporting the global supply chain. As a Dutch EP official put it, “the honeymoon phase [ahead of TTIP negotiations] is over.”
Before the TTIP consummation union takes place, some believe a prenuptial should be contemplated. No one wants a divorce, but there are significant cultural differences among the in-laws.
Dan Ikenson, at Forbes in the article, The Fallacy At The Heart Of The New E.U.-U.S. Trade Talks, offers this criticism and customer consequences that usually comes out of standardized regulatory requirements. The tangible danger is that TTIP will just be another agreement that fails to distinguish from corporate welfare and crony capitalism, and diminishes real economic choices among consumers.
“Too many Americans are inclined to don their rally caps in support of Team USA’s performance in the Great Trade Negotiations of 2013, as though it were their own personal interests – and not the interests of U.S. industries that would swiftly deny them better choices and better prices – that U.S. negotiators have at heart and in mind.
Perhaps, the next time these fans find themselves on a delayed flight, sandwiched between sweaty passengers in the stuffy cabin of an aged aircraft on a crowded tarmac because of some checklist oversight of an airline employee, they might consider how Team USA’s negotiators in the TTIP adamantly oppose competition from foreign carriers between U.S cities because that’s what the domestic carriers and their unions want.”
Expect that the E U : U S Trade Deal Potential Winners and Losers, will be the final result. This video reasons that the U.S. will be the overall winner. Yet in Initial Thoughts on a TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Christopher Wood argues a different motivation and outcome.
“With Europe mired in slow growth and, in parts, a lasting recession, and with weakening capacity and political will for further economic stimulus, the EU has been searching for any action that could kick-start economic recovery. An agreement with the US could do just that, boosting European exports and offering a counterweight to otherwise weak global demand. While a recovering US isn’t quite as desperate for new sources of growth, the agreement could counterbalance some of the growth lost to continuing austerity policies, offsetting the economic shock of the sequester.”
All these trade agreements benefit the corporatist insiders and collectivist unionists, who influence the political bribery machine. The lowly consumer is held hostage to the uniform market consolidation where the “one size fits all sides” chain of conformity, that thrives in the NWO mart of regimentation. The one consistent fear that disturbs the marital bliss of their TTIP honeymoon is the imposition of genuine national tariffs that protect independent businesses, who are the most prominent employers in a prosperous economy. Beware: Free Trade = Global Submission.
James Hall – July 17, 2013
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