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global economy” left them lukewarm. A joint statement issued
after high-level meetings in Brussels pledged both sides only
to “willingness to envisage” a broader trade deal “once the
conditions are right.”
The US and the EU last year launched talks toward a
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, joining a
series of US-led endeavours including a 12-country Pacific
Rim pact. As noted by FT reporters Shawn Donnan and
Andrew Byrne, all are part of a US – and to a lesser extent EU
– push to get out ahead of China “in writing the rules of global
trade for the 21st Century and move beyond a multilateral
stalemate” in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Although David Cameron, the British prime minister, has
supported a move towards a broader China-EU pact, most
EU member states remain wary. Business groups are more
receptive than governments, which tend to remain mindful of
the EU’s trade deficit with China.
› Mr Xi did not depart Europe empty-handed altogether.
In what Messrs Donnan and Byrne termed “a significant
victory for Beijing,” he won the endorsement of the EU for the
Chinese bid to join WTO negotiations on a global trade in
services agreement built upon the General Agreement on
Trade in Services (GATS) reached in 1995. China has tried to
join those negotiations in Geneva but encountered resistance
from the US and other participants.
› The GATS, which was inspired by essentially the same
objectives as its counterpart the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT), has since January 2000 been the
subject of multilateral trade negotiations. As construed by the
WTO, services are the largest and most dynamic component
of both developed and developing country economies:
“important in their own right, they also serve as crucial inputs
into the production of most goods.”
Of related interest . . .
› It would be wrong to assume that all is smooth sailing
for the US in trade matters. On the eve of another trade-
related trip by the American president – to Japan in late April
– the US accused Japan of blocking progress on the Trans-
Pacific Partnership by not allowing open access to its markets
for certain products. The trade deal among the US and 12
Pacific Rim countries is widely regarded as central to Mr
Obama’s “pivot to Asia” and a centrepiece of his trade agenda.
But negotiations stalled in December over provisions that
would make it easier for US businesses to sell their products
in Japan.
Most notably, the two nations disagree on what would
constitute a level playing field for the “Big Three” US
carmakers – General Motors, Ford and Chrysler – in
competition with Toyota, Nissan and other Japanese
producers in their home market.
Dorothy Fabian, Features Editor (USA)