Brussels, 10/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - A study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published on 7 June on “The benefits of liberalising product markets and reducing barriers to international trade and investment: the case of the United States and the European Union” that GDP would rise slightly in the EU and the USA if the obstacles to trade, direct foreign investment and internal competition were reduced on both sides of the Atlantic. A reduction in these obstacles could, in the medium term, increase living standards in terms of GDP per inhabitant: - from 2 to 3.5% in the EU ; - from 1.25 to 3% in the OECD area; - from 1 to 3% in the USA; - from 0.5 to 1.5% in the OECD area outside the EU and the USA. According to the study, taking account of the cumulated effect on work revenues, the benefit of a reduction of these obstacles for the inhabitants of the OECD countries could be equivalent to an extra year's salary over the course of a 40-year active life. Significant reforms are necessary in the EU and the USA to bring these barriers down to levels corresponding to the best practices observed in some OECD countries, the study stresses, citing reductions in regulations which restrict competition, tariff barriers and restrictions on direct foreign investment. According to the OECD, the need to relax the regulations which restrict competition seems more marked in the EU compared to the USA, and the advantages which would result from such a relaxation would also be more significant there. In the majority of EU countries the reforms would have to affect areas such as air, rail and road transport, the electricity and gas sectors and services.