Lew says US-EU trade deal needed to boost growth

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Thursday that a massive trade agreement between the United States and the European Union is needed to boost growth on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lew said that he and German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble agreed that while economic growth has picked up pace in Germany and the United States, an expanded trading partnership is necessary to encourage greater investment and more demand.

{mosads}”Greater investment would help generate much needed demand in the near term while also supporting longer-term growth potential,” Lew said in his third trip to Germany.

During the meeting in Berlin, Lew said they agreed “that more can be done in both the United States and Europe to strengthen growth and job creation, particularly through efforts to boost public and private investment.”

“This is also why coordinated global efforts like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are so critical to our overall economic strategy and we both agree on the importance of continued negotiations to reach an agreement,” he said.

On Wednesday, the European Commission announced that the sixth round of TTIP talks for July 14–18 in Brussels.

“Germany and the United States are important partners, and I look forward to our continued collaboration on policies that bolster growth, enhance trade, promote energy security and strengthen our regulatory frameworks — for our two nations’ economies and across the world,” Lew said.