Category Archives: European Union

Free The Atlantic!

Posted on by
Reply

I was pleased to see Peter Rashish’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last Friday, in which he pushed the idea of a free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union. It is a venerable idea that has been mentioned off and on for the past sixty years. Perhaps its time has finally come.

Is it time for duty-free trade?

I was a U.S. delegate in the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialog in the late 1990s (and headed up the Commerce Department’s European Policy Division even earlier) and often talked to folks about a US-EU FTA. The instant objection was always that such a negotiation and agreement would undermine the World Trade Organization and whatever multilateral trade talks were going on at the time. Insert the Tokyo Round, the Uruguay Round – take your pick. Rashish says the present objection is the same: the fear that a trans-Atlantic FTA might derail the Doha Round. Time to wake up, folks! The Doha Round is already derailed and it is time to save what we can from the wreckage.

According to a report by the Brussels-based European Center for International Political Economy, a transatlantic zero-tariffs initiative would increase combined U.S.-EU GDP by $180 billion within five years. That’s more added growth than either would receive from the completion of the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks.

Rashish makes the worthwhile point that duty-free trade across the Atlantic will greatly strengthen the global competitiveness of American and European manufacturers who now routinely have to pay customs duties on inputs that move back and forth across the “pond”. At a stroke, a non-competitive cost can be removed, giving a much-needed jolt to the U.S. and European economies. That also means a jobs boost on both sides of the Atlantic. And, combined with NAFTA, a trans-Atlantic FTA would create one huge duty-free market.

I applaud the Obama Administration’s determination to forge a broader Trans-Pacific Partnership, but let’s not forget the potential of the Atlantic while we are at it.

*************************

Your humble scribe was quoted in last Friday’s Pacific Business News, talking about how small companies often get more interested in exporting during down economies. They even put my picture in the print version.

To Chew Or Not To Chew …

Posted on by
Reply

… that is the question.

With apologies to the Bard, something is rotten in Denmark, where health vikings in the Danish government are assaulting products that contain vitamin or mineral supplements. Such products, all the rage in the rest of the world, are dangerous in the sight of the Danes, who have decided that there can be too much of a good thing. The Danes passed a law in 2004 to ban vitamin or mineral additives in food, but have only recently gotten around to fully enforcing the ban.

U.S. companies saw it coming. Kelloggs, which has merrily added vitamins to its cereals to appease American parents, submitted most of its products for approval by the Danes – and were turned down on every one of them. They have had to go to the extra expense of separate production runs for Denmark that leave the offending vitamins in Battle Creek. But others were seemingly caught unawares.

Vegemite with Velveeta. Yum.

The British are absolutely incensed that their beloved Marmite has been banned. Ditto the Australians, who can no longer peddle Kraft’s Vegemite. (Note to reader: this post is about trade barriers, not good taste.) Malted milk rates special ire, with bans for both Horlicks and Ovaltine. And Farley’s Rusks, a dry biscuit popular in England (but owned by America’s Heinz), is on the hit list.

The stated explanation is that humans can get too many vitamins and minerals, and that is a bad thing. The Danes, however, have not banned breathing despite acknowledgement that too much oxygen can also be a bad thing. And they still allow added vitamins and minerals in the form of vitamin capsules that any Dane can pick up at the local druggist. So, is the key that food with vitamins must be chewed, while capsules are merely swallowed (if not too big)?

A similar conundrum arose in Austria during the EU-US battles over genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). The fight persists, but in a lower key today, since even European farmers are attracted to demonstrated performance and safety in many GMO crops and herds. The Austrians were perhaps the staunchest of GMO opponents, but it became clear to me, working in Vienna at the time, that the fight was actually about how the GMOs were to be ingested by humans. Austrians opposed GMOs in their steaks and veggies, but eagerly accepted new pharmaceuticals that had been made from GMOs. Thus, I had to conclude that swallowing was OK, but chewing was verboten.

The Danes must be talking to the Austrians. In the meantime, “Alas, poor Horlicks!” is cried in the hamlets of Denmark.

 

Going For European Procurement Sales

Posted on by
Reply

Does your firm sell to governments in Europe?  Do you want to get into European procurement markets? Information on the government procurement systems of Western Europe and most of the European Union has been readily available for a long time, but that hasn’t always been the case in some of Europe’s smaller and newer markets.

Are you selling in Montenegro?

Our friends at the Federation of International Trade Associations (see their link to the right) have highlighted  the website of SIGMA, a joint EU-OECD project to improve governance. Though an interesting site if you are into political mumbo-jumbo, what really grabbed my attention were are couple of pages of links. There are comprehensive links to the public procurement websites of 21 EU member states, plus Croatia, Macedonia, Georgia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. Some of these are in the local language only, while others offer good information in English, French, German or other languages.  These are the sites where upcoming procurements are announced.

Sometimes, you really need to know a country’s procurement laws and regulations. That’s when SIGMA’s links to public procurement legislation can be invaluable. Links are provided not only to the EU’s procurement regs and those of most EU members, but also to places where such laws have been difficult to find: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Kosovo, Latvia, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. Almost all of these have been translated into English.

*********************

I’m miffed.  I checked those cables that WikiLeaks has put up so far – and none of my old cables are included. Of course, they’ve got a lot more to release, so I can hope. I want my 15 minutes of fame!