International Trade Reporter

Volume 19 Number 39

Thursday, October 3, 2002 Page 1687

ISSN 1523-2816

Europe

Trade Policy

Bush Administration Throws Its Support Behind TABD But Calls for
Narrower Agenda

The Bush administration has thrown its support behind the
business-driven initiative known as the Trans-Atlantic Business
Dialogue (TABD) but has called on the organization to narrow its focus
to ensure greater effectiveness in promoting trade and  investment
between the United States and the European Union, officials said Oct. 1.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans,  the officials said, met with
the current co-chairmen of the organization--Philip M. Condit, chairman
and CEO of The Boeing Co.,  and Sir Charles Masefield, vice chairman of
BAE Systems--on Sept. 24 in Washington, D.C., to press the
administration's twin  message of support and shift in agenda.

The officials said that Evans also told the business leaders that he
plans to attend the annual CEO-level meeting of the TABD this  year,
scheduled to be held in Chicago Nov. 7-8, along with other Bush
administration officials, as a sign of continued for  administration
backing for the initiative.

Other sources said that U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick is
also planning to attend the Chicago meeting next month.


The EU will be represented at the meeting, the sources said, by European
Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and European  Commissioner for Enterprise
and Information Society Erkki Liikanen.

William H. Lash III, assistant secretary of commerce for market access
and compliance, said in an interview with BNA that the  Bush
administration has spent an enormous amount of time and energy on
TABD-related issues--particularly since the  cancellation of last fall's
CEO-level conference, which was scheduled to be held in Stockholm,
Sweden, following the Sept. 11  terrorist attacks against the United
States.

"It's something we're very committed to," Lash said. "We've spent a lot
of time and resources on it this year...."

He said that his meeting with TABD officials in Copenhagen, Denmark,
last month to finalize plans for the CEO-level conference in  Chicago
next month was productive (19 ITR 1594, 9/19/02).

Lash said that, in Copenhagen and elsewhere, he has urged the TABD--set
up in 1995 to press governments to eliminate the  remaining regulatory
and other obstacles to trans-Atlantic trade and investment--to focus
more narrowly on furthering  recommendations that can be executed
through administrative action rather than through legislation.

"My message to the TABD has been, 'Give us things that are concrete,
that the executive branches [in the United States and the  EU] can do,'
" he said. "Something that requires legislation, this may not be the
best forum to get it through."

Lash said that the TABD meeting in Chicago next month will focus on five
issues: the continuing multilateral trade negotiations in  the World
Trade Organization, particularly the role of business in supporting
capacity building in developing countries; the  functioning of the
so-called networked economy ("taking a hard look at balancing privacy
and security, particularly after 9/11");  improving the operation of
capital markets; dispute management ("putting increased focus on the
early warning system" that was  set up several years ago to head off
major trade disputes between the United States and the EU; and
regulatory policy.

He said that the TABD, in particular, will be proposing in Chicago that
the United States and the EU undertake a government-  commissioned study
to find ways to enhance cooperation between capital markets in the
United States and the EU--"to make the  markets work more efficiently."


The TABD has been credited with successfully pressing governments on
both sides of the Atlantic to work together to remove  impediments to
trade and investment, particularly in the regulatory area.

Earlier this year, for example, after several years of prodding from the
TABD, the United States and the EU announced agreement  on joint
guidelines designed to boost trans-Atlantic cooperation in developing
and implementing regulations that impact trade and  investment (19 ITR
696, 4/18/02).

The TABD was also a driving force behind the Mutual Recognition
Agreement (MRAs) on product testing and certification that  were
concluded in 1997.

But the TABD has also been criticized for developing long "wish lists"
of objectives that were clearly unachievable because of  severe
government resource limitations or political constraints.

By Gary G. Yerkey

Copyright © 2002 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington
D.C.

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