Brussels, 02/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of the acting President of the Council of the EU and Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, whose services have been working flat out on the issue since 1 January 2007, Merkel and the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, agreed with US President Georges W. Bush at the EU-US Summit in Washington on Monday to advance transatlantic cooperation, adopting a 'Framework for advancing transatlantic economic integration between the EU and the USA'. The main areas of the joint frameworkJ are as follows.
The 'Framework' adopted on Monday aims above all to advance cooperation and cut the transatlantic regulatory burden. The Framework explains that 'In light of shared commitment to removing barriers to transatlantic commerce', the EU and US commit 'to rationalizing, reforming, and, where appropriate, reducing regulations to empower the private sector; to achieving more effective, systematic and transparent regulatory cooperation to reduce costs associated with regulation to consumers and producers; to removing unnecessary differences between our regulations to foster economic integration; to reinforce the existing transatlantic dialogue structures in regulatory cooperation both by intensifying our sector-by-sector EU-U.S. regulatory cooperation and our dialogue between the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and European Commission services on methodological issues.' The objective is clear, to breathe new life into the transatlantic regulatory dialogue that has been operating for several years now without achieving much in the way of positive outcomes.
In the first annex to the Framework, the EU and US commit to fostering cooperation and reducing regulatory burdens, strengthening cooperation between the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the European Commission to reduce barriers to transatlantic economic integration posed by regulations in specific sectors and by new legislation, encouraging 'further cooperation in the areas of agriculture, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures, and food safety', cosmetics (reducing animal testing and cooperating on the introduction of alternative testing methods), the car industry (road safety and fuel savings in particular), electrical equipment and chemicals and nanomaterials.
The new Framework is based on 'Lighthouse Priority Projects' listed in the second annex, on which progress is desired in the next six to eight months, before the next EU-US Summit in 2008. The Lighthouse Priority Projects cover:
(1) Intellectual Property Rights. 'Develop procedures for the exchange of information relating to goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights, the exchange of customs officials, and the organisation of joint technical assistance and/or enforcement missions and seek progress in the harmonisation of the different patent regimes.'
(2) Secure Trade. 'Develop common and accepted standards to maximize security, safety and facilitation of international trade supply chain that could lead to mutual recognition of programs for economic operators and…. Begin to exchange information on validation results associated with the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and Authorized Economic Operator programs in order to avoid the duplication of controls and to reduce business costs by avoiding divergent control requirements, as appropriate.'
(3) Financial Markets. 'Promote and seek to ensure conditions for the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and International Financial Reporting Standards to be recognized in both jurisdictions without the need for reconciliation by 2009 or possibly sooner.'
(4) Innovation and Technology. 'Conduct a high-level conference on innovation in health-related industries and a workshop on best practices in innovation policies; Develop a joint framework for cooperation on identification and development of best practices for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies and develop a work plan to promote the interoperability of electronic health record systems; Develop a science-based work plan for EU-U.S. collaboration on innovative and eco-efficient biobased products; Establish a joint research infrastructure for mouse functional genomics (following a joint meeting in 2007 in Belgium); Sponsor joint workshops or conferences to foster the exchange of information on nanotechnology in areas of mutual interest.'
(5) Investment. 'Estalbish a regular dialogue to address obstacles to investment.'
The Framework notes the establishment of a Transatlantic Economic Council 'to be co-chaired, on the U.S. side, by a U.S. Cabinet-level official in the Executive Office of the President (currently Allan Hubbard) and on the EU side by a Member of the European Commission (currently Vice President Guenter Verheugen),' backed up by a group 'of individuals experienced in transatlantic issues drawing in particular from the heads of existing transatlantic dialogues', to meet at least once a year. (eh)