EU backs German, British goal of US free-trade deal
(BRUSSELS) - European Union leaders gave their backing on Monday to calls from Germany and Britain to pursue ambitious talks on a free-trade deal with the United States, diplomats said.
"2012 should be a decisive year to move ahead on trade agreements with major partners," read a statement after a summit focused on measures that could boost what they called "growth-friendly consolidation and job-friendly growth."
Leaders of the 27 EU states said experts "should consider all options for boosting EU/US trade and investment," in a shift in emphasis away from flagging efforts to unjam decade-long negotiations on a global trade accord.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron each floated the idea of a dedicated push during speeches last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"We're looking at this coming in after India and Singapore," an EU diplomat told AFP.
India has been in discussions with the EU, its biggest trading partner, since June 2007 to liberalise trade in goods, services and investment through a free trade agreement.
Singapore launched free-trade talks with the EU in 2010, and was last year considered the most likely to be signed first.
Frustrated by delays in reaching an agreement, European governments threatened in September to break off talks with India on the free-trade deal and set a February 12 deadline to conclude a pact.
An agreement with the United States would have to involve an end to World Trade Organisation litigation going back nearly eight years and tensions stretching back decades over transatlantic aircraft manufacturing and government subsidies for Europe's Airbus and American planemaker Boeing.
"It won't come about tomorrow, but it's what these leaders mean by a determined push for growth where they think something can be achieved and a recognition that the ways of the last decade now need to change," another EU diplomat added.