31/05/2013
_ Aznar asks for a “renewed Atlantic agenda” to “restore prosperity and to maintain leadership”
_ García-Legaz: “The Government expects that the Commission’s mandate to start negotiations will be broad”
_ De Gucht: “Europe needs to overcome its current difficulties and find new opportunities like this one”
FAES Foundation launched in Madrid the report TAFTA. The Case for an Open Transatlantic Free Trade Area with which it updates its proposal to establish a free trade area between Europe and the United States. The former Prime Minister of Spain and President of FAES, José María Aznar; the Deputy Minister for Trade, Jaime García-Legaz -co-author of the report with Joseph Quinlan, executive manager of the U.S. Trust Bank of America-, and the European Commissioner of Commerce, Karel De Gucht, were the speakers invited to the launch, held at Casa de America.
Aznar, who signs the report’s preface, said in his address that “if we want to get back on the path to prosperity and maintain our international leadership, Europe and the United States have to promote a renewed Atlantic agenda, with new goals and new allies”.
In this regard, he said that “a free trade agreement would boost the Atlantic basin: it would dynamize our economies, boost growth and jobs, strengthen our geostrategic position and renew the foundations of the Atlantic relationship, which is not exhausted, but instead comprises an extraordinary potential for prosperity”.
Aznar has stated that “there is no opposition between freedom and prosperity”, and that the former “enables economic growth, the expansion of the middle classes, the development of the Welfare State and the enforcement of everyone’s rights”. “That’s the strongest pillar of the transatlantic link” Aznar stated, who also celebrated the fact that the EU and the United States should have decided to start negotiations and for whose success he called for some “political will”.“It’s a decision that FAES has been claiming for for years” Aznar stressed, who has also launched the report last April in Washington.
Aznar also argued that “this redefinition of the transatlantic relationship cannot rest on the North Atlantic only”, but “must include the Latin American countries that share the values of representative government, the Rule of Law, market economy and open society”. “Latin America calls, on its own rights, to be considered a part of major global decisions”, he underlined.
NEGOTIATE WITH ALL
For his part, the Deputy Minister for Trade, Jaime Garcia Legaz, said that “all expectations are placed on June’s EU-US summit beginning the talks announced by Obama and Barroso, and thus giving the Commission a mandate for negotiation”. A mandate, he said, that “the Spanish Government expects to be comprehensive and include all relevant aspects to achieve the highest possible goals”. “We have the will to give the Commission a mandate to negotiate with all”, he noted.
García-Legaz added that “the economies of Europe and the United States account for 50 percent of the global GDP, so that the free trade agreement between the two would be the most far-reaching one that you can sign today”.“It would generate an annual increase in EUGDP of 0.5 percent and gains of 86 billion euros for the EU as a whole”, the Deputy Minister estimated.
“Europe and the United States can not afford to fail in these negotiations” Garcia-Legaz said.“The Governments and the European Commission have an obligation to make every effort possible to make the transatlantic market is a reality in the coming years”, he said.
HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY
The European Commissioner for Trade, Karel De Gucht, said in his address that “Europe needs to overcome its current difficulties and find new opportunities like this one, which it needs to seize with both hands”.“We are facing a historic opportunity to open all markets making the whole European society benefit from it. This agreement is so big that we cannot afford anything but success”, he said.
De Gucht has assessed that “the Spanish economy is well positioned to receive an important share of these gains”.“In Spain have seen surplus figures for the United States” he recalled, to which he added that “the challenge is to establish the structural reforms that allow for an even higher capacity once this agreement is reached”.
De Gucht also indicated that the EU-US FTA “would go far beyond its economic benefits”.According to the Commissioner, “we will have to find a new balance in terms of new markets” and “keep the system of multilateral relations and our relationship with the emerging countries”. “The transatlantic partnership will help strengthen us, allowing us to achieve greater collective weight”, he considered.
TAFTA The Case For An Open Transatlantic Free Trade Area, written by García-Legaz and the executive manager and head of Market Strategy of the U.S. Trust Bank of America, Joseph Quinlan, argues that the economic crisis in Europe and the United States has demonstrated the global importance of the transatlantic economy and the extent of both powers’ integration.The report specifies and updates the strategy proposed by the Foundation in 2006 in an earlier paper.
Secretaria de Estado de Cooperación Internacional y para Iberoamérica