Ambassador Froman met with key EU officials this week to build on progress made during the inaugural round of negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement.
On Tuesday, Ambassador Froman and European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier discussed the potential for TTIP to promote jobs, economic growth, and international competitiveness in both economies, and focused in particular on issues related to financial services, intellectual property, and government procurement. Ambassador Froman also met on Tuesday with European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger to talk about the important role energy and raw materials trade plays in the transatlantic economic relationship. Today, Ambassador Froman sat down with European Commission Directorate-General for Trade Jean-Luc Demarty to review the completed negotiating round and the interim steps both sides should take to set the stage for a successful second round this fall. The officials also discussed increased cooperation on a proposed Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) and various WTO topics, and noted that the U.S. and EU have shared interests in a “Bali package” for the WTO Ministerial Conference in Indonesia in early December. They agreed that WTO Members need to accelerate the pace of negotiations in order to achieve this.
The U.S. economic relationship with the EU is the largest and most complex in the world, generating goods and services trade flows of about $2.7 billion per day and supporting more than 13 million jobs.
