Addressing the business community in New York, Barroso focused on the EU-US partnership's ability to facilitate growth and improve employment possibilities, and underlined the potential benefits of a free trade agreement.
Together, the EU and the USA account for more than half of the world economy, trading goods and services worth €2 billion daily. This agreement can bring significant economic gains as a whole for the EU (€119 billion a year) and the US (€95 billion a year).
Last February, President Barroso announced, together with President Obama, the launch of negotiations for a free trade agreement between the EU and the US.
Mr Barroso noted that the agenda for these negotiations is clear and mentioned questions such as conventional barriers to trade in goods, non-tariff barriers, global standards for business and public procurement. He pointed out that it is not possible to eliminate all regulatory divergences in one round.
"For that reason, we aim to negotiate what you could call a 'living agreement' - one that not only removes the main trading obstacles of the past, but that looks just as much towards the future: working on the prevention of regulatory barriers; establishing mechanisms that enable a further deepening of economic integration over time; enhancing cooperation for the development of rules and principles on global issues of common concern", the President said.
According to President Barroso, "these negotiations can be the start of a new era" for trade liberalisation but most of all "they will reaffirm the global role and responsibility of both partners, which goes much beyond economics".
Full speech
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