Gothenburg, 15/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Commissioners for Trade and External Relations, Pascal Lamy and Chris Patten, told the press on Thursday evening in Gothenburg, together with Swedish Trade Minister Leif Pagrotsky, of the main results of the EU/United States Summit. They all welcomed the frankness and the amplitude of exchanges with their American partner. "I was personally impressed by President Bush's engagement and involvement", said Mr Pagrotsky, who mainly welcomed the passages in the joint declarations on the participation of developing countries in the next round of trade negotiations and on the joint effort with a view to combating AIDS and other transmissible diseases.
Mr Patten said he hoped the EU and the United States would contribute to research on AIDS in Africa and to the success of the UN conference scheduled for July. On the subject of what Europe could contribute to the future world fund for the fight against AIDS, he replied: "Be serious", Europe already provides EUR 800 million to efforts throughout the world. While the Commission has still to examine what its own contribution to the fund will be, he said he would not be surprised that Europe's contribution as a whole finally exceeds that of the United States …
Regarding the trade issue, Mr Lamy stressed that the EU/United States summit, on one hand, clearly said that the future round of trade negotiations is "not any round" but ambitious negotiations and that, on the other, its message was that bilateral friction must be settled in a responsible manner using the "telephone, not the megaphone". The steel dispute was discussed, as an example of a case in which the opening of a procedure does not help to avoid a problem, said Mr Lamy in response to a question. The decision taken on this subject by the US Administration "smells potentially of protectionism" and has already had an impact on the market, he stressed. Mr Lamy added: "we'll have to work on it". In response to another question on the Helms-Burton law, Mr Lamy said that the problem of the extraterritorial legislation of the United States is on the table at each summit. "We heard good noises" on this subject at a certain stage but we know that the atmosphere at the Congress is not in favour of repeal or "dramatic change" in this legislation, which, he said, is something that is "deeply regretted".