SOURCE: EU IN THE US, 11/4/15

The more we facilitate connections between the EU and the U.S., the more we both stand to gain.

The announcement that the United States reached a trade accord with 11 Pacific Rim nations was great news for those of us who firmly believe that increased trade between nations is the best way to increase our prosperity. This Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will help spur jobs and growth in all the countries involved — and it is bound to boost economies around the world, including the European Union’s.

As the world’s biggest exporter, the EU knows from experience that as other countries improve their bottom lines so do we. And while the U.S. has been busy negotiating TPP, we have struck a number of deals ourselves that improve our access to the Asian market. We concluded free trade agreements with Singapore and with Vietnam earlier this summer and are now focused on securing a deal with Japan.

The European Union and the United States approach these trade deals in a very similar fashion. We are both open, market-oriented economies whose people thrive in competitive environments. We believe that engagement in the world doesn’t have to mean compromising on labor principles, human rights and the protection of the environment. We respect the rule of law, uphold high standards and provide our citizens the opportunity to create and innovate.

And the result of that is clear: EU and U.S. companies produce cutting-edge, world-class products and services across the board ranging from medical devices, to clothing and the latest tech company offering. If you look for an industry leader in any given field, chances are you will find it in either the United States or the European Union.
And as we look around the world, we want to secure the best conditions possible for selling our products and services — that means breaking down trade barriers, removing tariffs, cutting red-tape, protecting intellectual property rights and developing new rules for global trade in areas where the World Trade Organization has not been able to make any progress. In short, allowing our businesses to do business. And the more business we create, the more jobs and growth we see in our societies.

The trade deals we both have been busy striking in Asia and elsewhere have that end goal in sight. But the biggest boost in jobs and growth will come from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) we are currently negotiating — a trade deal whose scope and reach dwarfs any other deal we have pursued to date.
The thinking behind it is very simple: the EU and the U.S. do more business with each other than anywhere else in the world — and the more we help facilitate those connections the more we both stand to gain. The amount of trade and investment across the Atlantic is mindboggling, generating $5.5 trillion in total commercial sales a year, accounting for three-quarters of global financial markets and over one third of world trade. As a high-profile CEO of a major US company recently pointed out to me: there is certainly money to be made in new markets, but this old market is still where the majority of our profits are generated.

So what needs to be fixed? TTIP goes beyond the scope of our other trade deals and asks what can be done to improve an already very healthy economic relationship. We can certainly find tariffs and red-tape in need of cutting here and there, but since this will be a deal between two of the largest open market economies in the world, we will also look for other areas where just a little fine tuning can mean a big boost for our economies. One such area is making regulations more compatible as our companies are faced with manufacturing two lines of products for the markets on both sides of the Atlantic — even though there are near equivalent levels of health safety, security and environmental protection. For instance, we both produce excellent MRI machines that are equally safe, but our manufacturers are still faced with producing a different version for each market. Recognizing that our different regulations are equally good could lead to tremendous savings for the industries involved.
We already have over 15 million workers on both sides of the Atlantic whose jobs have been created from our mutual trade and investment. These are high-skilled, high-wage jobs and TTIP will generate many more of them.
As a seasoned trade negotiator, I can attest that every deal I have negotiated on behalf of the European Union has been a win-win for all parties involved. But TTIP will stand to be the biggest win-win of them all.

David O’Sullivan serves as the ambassador of the European Union to the United States.