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US Likes Merkel Trade Initiative -- But Not Now

The US likes Merkel's calls for close trans-Atlantic trade ties -- but says it will have to deal with other issues first.

The United States has reacted positively to an initiative from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to foster closer trade ties between the US and the European Union -- but says that the idea will have to be put on the back burner for a while due to more pressing concerns.

"Her proposals have been received very positively," Franklin Lavin, American Under Secretary of Commerce For International Trade, said Wednesday in a speech to the Washington International Trade Association. "I think her comments are very well-founded (and) we should do whatever we can to keep this relationship moving ahead."

He was reacting to Merkel's keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, when the German leader argued for closer cooperation between the EU and US. "I feel it is very important that trans-Atlantic economic relations are intensified," she said in her speech, where she called for negotiations about non-tariff barriers such as technical standards and financial market regulations.

Germany currently holds the EU and Group of Eight (G8) presidencies, and Merkel, who is regarded as more pro-American than her predecessor Gerhard Schröder, has made closer trans-Atlantic ties one of her priorities. Hopes are high that the annual EU-US summit in April will give trade relations between the two parties a boost.

However Lavin said that the US's crowded agenda meant that trade negotiations with the EU would have to be put off for now. "How far we can go and what our ultimate vision is, is still a little bit unclear," Lavin said. "I think as we get toward the end of the year, we're going to be in more of a position to respond more thematically to some of these suggestions."

Other trade issues are more pressing for the Bush administration at the moment, Lavin said. These include getting trade agreements with Peru, Panama and Colombia through Congress, and renewing the White House's "fast track" authority to negotiate trade deals.

But Germany shouldn't give up hope for closer trans-Atlantic ties yet. Lavin said Merkel's proposals have already been discussed in a number of meetings within the Bush administration, "with a very positive response from the US side."

A German Embassy spokesman told Reuters that there are opportunities to reduce costs in sectors such as the automotive industry and medicine by eliminating duplicated testing procedures. "If we can come to some kind of agreement at the EU-US summit on working on this issue in the future, I think that already would be a big step," the spokesman said.

dgs/reuters