The newly confirmed European Union Ambassador to the United States David O’Sullivan told an audience of policy thought leaders that the EU would collaborate with the United States on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)—just 24 hours after President Barack Obama approved his post.
The TTIP agreement—which has been met with mixed responses globally since confidential negotiations began in 2012—would herald a new era of free trade between the United States and the EU by eliminating non-tariff barriers and revising trade regulations for agricultural, consumer and industrial products.
If signed, TTIP would create the largest free-trade area in the world.
“You’re very proud of your system here in the U.S., and we are very proud of what we have built in Europe,” Amb. O’ Sullivan said in his Wednesday address at the George Washington University’s Regulatory Studies Center conference. His speech, at GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs, was his first in the United States since becoming ambassador. “But I do believe that the trade deal between us offers huge opportunities, and it is a high priority of the [European] Commission.”
The two-day conference welcomed international embassy representatives, U.S. government staff, leading regulatory thinkers and former U.S. Trade Representative Sen. Robert Portman (R-Ohio) to discuss larger policy questions surrounding TTIP, according to Susan Dudley, founder and director of the Regulatory Studies Center.
“We will examine how our regulatory systems work, how they are different, how we are involved as stakeholders and the benefits and risks of regulatory reform,” Ms. Dudley said in an interview prior to the event.
“We will be challenged and all of our systems will be challenged to see if they can deliver—in the future—security and prosperity, but also a comfortable regulatory environment that we cherish on both sides of the Atlantic.” - EU Amb. David O'Sullivan
Ms. Dudley founded the center at GW in 2009 after serving as the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for three years. In addition to the conference, Ms. Dudley has been working with scholars from Berlin’s Hertie School of Governance on a forthcoming paper about the opportunities and challenges of TTIP. Both the conference and the paper resulted from a grant that the center received last year to study regulatory cooperation between the EU and the United States.
“Achieving these goals requires policy research to identify and analyze key challenges and public debate to develop politically feasible solutions,” Ms. Dudley said in opening remarks. “With the support from the European Union, the GW Regulatory Studies Center is attempting to contribute to both the research and the policy debate.”
Amb. O’Sullivan said that after serving as director general for trade of the European Commission for five years, he is a “recovering trade negotiator,” but—he joked— in his new role he will act more like a grandpa.
“I feel this negotiation is sort of like being a grandparent. You get some of the fun parts, but you hand it over to someone else at the end of the evening,” he quipped.
According to Amb. O’Sullivan, both the EU and the United States reaffirmed their commitment to TTIP and regulatory reform that respects the political autonomy of each earlier this month during the G-20 summit in Brisbane, Australia— a meeting of leaders from 19 countries and the EU. He said that both the EU and United States are debating regulations and oversight.
He added that ultimately they hope to “build a deal which makes our systems more interoperable, ultimately reduces the burden on business and makes it easier for people to invest across the Atlantic, but while respecting the principles and values on which our respective systems are built.”
“We all know at the end of the day, we are all going to struggle to remain competitive in an acutely dynamic and competitive environment,” Amb. O’Sullivan said. “We will be challenged and all of our systems will be challenged to see if they can deliver—in the future—security and prosperity, but also a comfortable regulatory environment that we cherish on both sides of the Atlantic.”