Obama, EU leaders launch trade talks

U.S. and European leaders launched trade talks on Monday aimed at forming a massive $5 trillion trans-Atlantic trading zone. 

{mosads}President Obama said the United States and the 27-nation European Union would embark on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) as an avenue toward creating jobs and boosting economic growth.

“This potentially groundbreaking partnership would deepen those ties” that support millions in jobs and trillions in trade, Obama said during a press conference at the Group of 8 summit in Northern Ireland with British Prime Minister David Cameron, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and other leaders.

Obama announced that the first round of talks would take place the week of July 8 in Washington.

The president said he hopes that the two major trading partners — the U.S. and EU make up 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product — can work through the tough issues and “stay focused on the big picture.”

“I’m hopeful we can achieve the kind of high-standard, comprehensive agreement that the global trading system is looking to us to develop,” he said.

Obama called the trade deal, which has been more than a decade in the making, “a priority of mine and my administration,” and said it is “important that we get it right, and that means resisting the temptation to downsize our ambitions or avoid tough issues just for the sake of getting a deal.”

“We’re going to give a strong mandate to our negotiators, but occasionally I suspect we’re going to have to intervene and break through some logjams,” he said. “Nevertheless, I’m confident that we can get it done.”

The leaders estimated it could take a year or two for negotiators to move through some of the tougher issues on the table, including regulations and agricultural issues.

Still, at least one leader said he wanted a quick wrap-up of the agreement.

“We intend to move forward fast,” Barroso said. 

“We can say that neither of us will give up content for the sake of speed, but we intend to make rapid progress,” he said. “Huge economic benefits are expected from reducing red tape, avoiding divergent regulations for the future.”

Cameron drove home that the point of the G8 is “to fire up our economies and drive growth and prosperity around the world — to do things that make a real difference to people’s lives.”

“And there is no more powerful way to achieve that than by boosting
trade,” he said. “There’s no better way than by launching these negotiations on
a landmark deal between the European Union and the United States of
America.”

The leaders agreed more than a year ago, during the G8 summit at Camp David, to forge ahead with the comprehensive trade deal.

While doubt surrounded the talks up to this point, Cameron called it “a testament to the leadership and the political will of everyone here that we’ve reached this point. We must maintain that political will in the months ahead. This is a once-in-a-generation prize and we are determined to seize it.”