Mary Harney was interviewed on the RTE News at One this afternoon about the pre EU-US summit taking place this afternoon with the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue. Attendees will include Don Evans, US Secretary for Commerce.
According to MH: -the agenda is around world trade, regulation, piracy, intellectual property; -it will feed into the outcome of the summit tomorrow; -it will agree on processes to resolve regulatory difficulties that hamper business; -counterfeiting accounts for 7% of global trade; -EU and US must work together on enforcement regimes; -important because of the high inter-dependance of the EU-US economices, etc.
You can hear the interview at: http://www.rte.ie/rams/radio/news1pm.ram, otherwise go to archive.
The TABD report to the summit is entitled "Establishing a Barrier-Free Transatlantic Market: Principles and Recommnedations". http://www.tabd.com/
The Presidency press release for the summit includes the lines: "Delegates will discuss the implications for transatlantic trade of new US and EU anti-terrorist security controls, Intellectual Property Rights and the fight against Counterfeiting." http://www.eu2004.ie/templates/news.asp?sNavlocator=66&list_id=882
Teresa
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On Fri, 2004-06-25 at 15:20, teresahackett@eircom.net wrote:
Mary Harney was interviewed on the RTE News at One this afternoon about the pre EU-US summit taking place this afternoon with the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue. Attendees will include Don Evans, US Secretary for Commerce.
According to MH: -the agenda is around world trade, regulation, piracy, intellectual property; -it will feed into the outcome of the summit tomorrow; -it will agree on processes to resolve regulatory difficulties that hamper business; -counterfeiting accounts for 7% of global trade; -EU and US must work together on enforcement regimes; -important because of the high inter-dependance of the EU-US economices, etc.
See http://www.corporateeurope.org/tpntabd.html for the Corporate Europe Observatory report on the TABD. Essentially it appears to be a very high-level business lobby group for EU-US free trade, i.e. a single transatlantic common market. It has frightening levels of access to decision-makers in Europe and the US, considering that it has no democratic mandate.
The proposed negotiations would imply further intensified and accelerated downwards convergence between EU and US policy-making and legislation. A Transatlantic divide over environment and consumer protection already existed during the Clinton Administration, but has deepened dramatically after Bush moved into the White House. Corporate interests have been granted an almost complete grip on environment and health decision-making in Washington D.C. and this increasingly has impacts far beyond the US borders. On behalf of US corporations, the Bush government aggressively attacks EU limits on genetically modified food and proposed safety regulations for chemical products (REACH). [8] Things will only get worse if Bush gets re-elected, while it remains to be seen how much the situation will improve if John Kerry wins.
No matter what free trade proponents claim, convergence in EU-US rule-making would mean a further step backwards in the quality of European policies and regulation, already under immense pressure due to the EU's obsession with international competitiveness. Beyond concerns for the diminishing space for sustainable and people-centred policies, the proposed convergence (to be exercised in un-transparent structures between government officials and business) is fundamentally at odds with genuine democratic processes.
David