GENEVA – US and European officials have taken the first steps in high-stakes negotiations to craft a transatlantic trade agreement, with the initial round of talks focusing on cutting barriers to trade and harmonizing regulations across a swath of economic activity, the Financial Times reported Monday. The discussions, which started in Washington on Monday, are being hailed by many business groups that view a deal as having great potential to stoke growth across the US and European economies. But the EU-US talks are being viewed skeptically by some consumer advocates who worry that they could end up undermining regulatory standards in areas such as agriculture and food safety, data privacy, financial products and the environment. The US and EU have been eyeing the potential for a sweeping transatlantic trade deal for years, but it was only in November 2011 that they seriously began to explore its feasibility. The talks were announced witah the goal of a final agreement by the end of next year – a swift and ambitious timeline. “We are convinced that this trade agreement will result in more jobs and more growth – and that will help to get us out of the economic crisis,” said Karel De Gucht, EU trade commissioner, at a press conference in Geneva on Monday. “We will work hard to get a result. We will of course meet a lot of problems and stumbling stones, but if we reach an agreement, it would be a historic one.” According to EU officials, this round of talks will cover “market access for goods, services, investment, public procurement, regulatory issues and non-tariff barriers in areas such as customs, intellectual property, energy and raw materials, and the environment”. This broad agenda was laid out with the expectation that negotiators would first try to tackle areas of greater common ground before narrowing their focus to the big sticking points later in the talks. Among the sources of greatest friction are harmonization of standards for the export of certain US agricultural products. — Agencies
