Chapter News, Trade & TTIP Related

Cecilia Malmström stresses importance of EU-US cooperation on trade in visit to Washington D.C.

The European Union’s Commission for Trade, Cecilia Malmström is in Washington D.C., to stress the importance of deep cooperation between the European Union and the United States on trade issues.

In a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, she argued that on both sides of the Atlantic the long consensus around open markets was now the subject of intense debate. Governments needed to respond to concerns raised in those debates by making trade policy more economically effective and by ensuring that it served as a tool to protect and project our values by shaping global trade rules.

Neither the EU nor the US could do this alone. Instead, she argued that each could and should support the other in this broad agenda across all our work. In this respect, she highlighted not only the particular importance of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) but also the need to work together at the World Trade Organisation and how our respective bilateral and regional agreements – such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the EU’s recent agreements with Vietnam and Canada – were mutually beneficial.

During her visit, the Commissioner is also discussing TTIP and EU-US cooperation with US Trade Representative Michael Froman, US Senators Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden and with Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf and Deputy Commissioner Stephen Ostroff. She is also holding discussions with US trade union and business representatives. On Thursday she meets AFL-CIO President Trumka and on Friday will participate in a roundtable discussion at the US Chamber of Commerce.

Read the speech