U.S. - E.U. Transatlantic Dialogue

The United States and the European Union share the largest bilateral trade and investment relationship in the world, accounting for over $1.5 trillion. In order to ensure that this critically important economic relationship continues to thrive, President Bush and his EU counterparts established in 2002 the "Positive Economic Agenda" to advance bilateral cooperation to reduce trade frictions and foster expanded transatlantic commerce. Recognizing that regulatory differences, not tariffs, comprise the most significant remaining transatlantic trade barriers, President Bush and his EU counterparts welcomed the U.S.-EU Regulatory Cooperation Roadmap. This Roadmap builds on the 2002 U.S.-EU Guidelines for Regulatory Cooperation in which the European Commission undertook to make its regulatory process more transparent.