EU-U.S. Regulatory Cooperation Delivers Early Results

The European Commission and U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week agreed confidentiality arrangements to ensure better health protection and facilitate trade between the EU and the United States. This will enable the Commission and the U.S. Government to exchange confidential information about the safety of cosmetics and medical devices.

“At this year's EU-U.S. Summit we agreed to put in place a new framework for transatlantic economic integration," said EC Vice-President Günter Verheugen, European Chairman of the Transatlantic Economic Council and Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry policy. "I'm pleased to see that our ongoing cooperation with U.S. regulators is delivering tangible results for our citizens and businesses."

In a speech at the European Parliament, Vice-President Verheugen emphasized the importance of the transatlantic framework: "With more than a billion dollars a day crossing the Atlantic in trade flows, something is obviously going right. It is the very fact that we are trading in such high volume, and such high value, with the U.S. which makes our regulatory cooperation so important, and the removal of one seemingly small regulatory obstacle can have massive impact. With 14 million jobs depending directly on transatlantic trade that impact is very real."

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