Seems the hot-topic at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this week is a U.S.-EU Free Trade Agreement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel floated the idea in her keynote address at the conference on Wednesday saying while the two are each-other’s most-important trading partner,” the potential of our cooperation has not yet been tapped.” British Prime Minister David Cameron says he supports the idea saying it would deliver a much-needed boost to global commerce.
The idea comes with growing sentiment that the Doha Round of World Trade Talks is dead. A year ago attendees at the forum launched and all-out effort to complete the Doha Round in 2011. It didn’t happen.
With the apparent demise of any type of new world trade deal, the focus has been on bilateral agreements between countries. Prime Minister Cameron says a U.S.-EU deal “Could have a bigger impact than all the other agreements put together.”
However, such a deal may be a pipe-dream because there are so many differences between the two on everything from technical specifications to genetically modified crops. The head of the WTO, Pascal Lamy told reporters the differences between Washington and Brussels would be difficult to bridge….especially in agriculture.
Earlier this week about 50 U.S. food and ag groups sent a letter to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht saying they support the idea but the European Union would have to change the way they try to legitimize their non-science-based barriers.
Latest: 
