New Institutions for Transatlantic Trade

In late 1994 and 1995, senior figures on both sides of the Atlantic advocated a transatlantic free trade area: in December 1995 the EU and the United States signed the New transatlantic agenda and the Joint EU—US action plan in Madrid; in March 1998, the European Commission proposed ‘a new transatlantic marketplace’, which was vetoed by France in the following month; and in September 1998 the Commission offered its latest plan—the Draft action plan for transatlantic economic partnership. This article examines the political and economic case for new institutions, drawing on the arguments the Commission used to support its proposal for a new transatlantic marketplace. These arguments are found to be unpersuasive. For an EU stance in trade policy matters to be improved by a French veto may be unprecedented. That is what has happened, however. The French veto actually led to the Draft action plan which provides transatlantic trade relations with a better framework than the proposal for a new transatlantic marketplace could possibly have done

Action plan · Commission · Economics · European commission · European union · Foreign policy · General partnership · International trade · Management · Political science · Politics · Transatlantic relations · Veto · EU Law and Policy Analysis · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Public Administration · World Trade Organization Law