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News Releases
No. 46/06
June 19, 2006
TRANSCRIPT: MANDELSON BRIEFING ON EU-US SUMMIT
On Friday 16 June at 11:00 am, EU
Trade
Commissioner
Peter Mandelson gave a briefing for
journalists ahead of the
EU-US Summit in Vienna on 21
June. He emphasized that "the economic and commercial
context of this summit is an overwhelmingly positive
one" and noted that 2005-2006 had seen the resolution of
the
FSC [Foreign Sales Corporation] dispute and the lifting of telecoms procurement
sanctions that have been in place for over a decade. He
noted that before the EU-US Summit the EU and the US
would adopt a tough new joint strategy in the fight
against counterfeiting and intellectual property theft.
A full transcript of the Commissioner's remarks follows:
EU TRADE COMMISSIONER MANDELSON: "Today’s
background briefing was originally scheduled for Monday,
but for logistical reasons we have brought it forward… I
appreciate your forbearance.
"I wanted to try and give you some flavor of the key
trade and economic issues we will be discussing at the
EU-US summit in Vienna next week, (inaudible)...be
dominated publicly by geopolitics and this tends to
obscure the bulk of the substance of the trade dimension
of the EU-US relationship which is essentially economic
and the engine room of the relationship.
"My basic point is a simple one: the economic and
commercial context of this summit is an overwhelmingly
positive one. Never forget that the transatlantic
relationship is worth over a billion dollars every day
in trade, over a trillion dollars of transatlantic
foreign direct investment…and about fourteen million
jobs in the US and EU rely on Transatlantic trade.
"We have a free trade administration in the US. I have
consistently welcomed President Bush’s commitment to an
ambitious
Doha Round – his remarks yesterday suggest
that he senses the need for the US to match the EU in
additional flexibility. The Summit is an excellent
chance to discuss DDA [Doha Development Agenda] in greater detail with President
Bush.
"I am very pleased that Susan Schwab has now been
confirmed – that makes her my third USTR [US Trade
Representative] and I only feel like I’ve been in the
job ten minutes (laughs). She is a highly experienced
operator who understands the flexibility all sides will
need to show to move forward in the Doha Round.
"Partly thanks to Susan’s influence as Deputy USTR and
now as USTR we have made real progress this year on the
issues that attract the media's attention which are
disputes. Please bear in mind that
EU-US disputes still
over affect less than 2% of EU-US trade. And this year
we have reduced that (inaudible).
"The US Congress finally repealed the WTO-incompatible
elements of the Jobs Act - the FSC. I pay tribute to the work of Chairmen [US
Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck] Grassley [R-IA]
and [US House Ways & Means Committee Chair Bill] Thomas
[R-CA] for their work on achieving that…An end is in
sight on
Byrd [Amendment]; while the US continues to
phase out payments our sanctions will also be phased
out. And – almost unnoticed – both sides have lifted
telecom procurement sanctions after a dispute going back
more than a decade.
"A second point to note… in the last year, since the
summit that was held in Washington we have taken two
important steps in achieving closer or… proactive
cooperation.
"The first is putting in place the umbrella of the
Transatlantic Economic Initiative that was set up
following the summit at
November's first-ever EU-US
Economic Ministerial Meeting. We expect that there'll be
another Economic Ministerial towards the end of this
year. This tend to be very focused result-oriented
meetings…I am not saying that the summits are not, of
course…but the Ministerial Meetings tend to be even
more result oriented focused on actions that we can take
together The TEI is focused on non-tariff barriers for
the simple reason that these are now by far the biggest
hurdle standing in the way of growing transatlantic
trade.
"The second step that has been taken during last year is
joint action on intellectual piracy. Those of you who
followed my work in
China last week will know that this
is a top priority for me because it goes to the heart of
the EU competitiveness, it goes to the heart of our
ability to gain greater market share, to increase our
presence in third countries' markets which
overwhelmingly are in the front of value-added goods
which have created an intellectual content. So, not only
we have to increase the presence of our goods and
services in third countries' markets, once we are there
the intellectual property of these goods and services
has to be properly protected. That is why it is so
important to us economically. (inaudible)
"The number of counterfeit items seized at EU borders
has increased by more than 1000% between 1998 and 2004,
rising from ten million items in 1998 to over 103
million in 2004 and that is just what it is seized in
the border and that we know about it. Pirates of course
are a huge problem in the luxury goods trade, but they
are increasingly moving into car parts, aircraft parts,
food and drink and pharmaceuticals.
"(Inaudible)…last November when Gunther Verheugen,
Carlos Gutierrez and I agreed to put together a much
tougher EU-US joint approach to intellectual property
piracy and counterfeiting. It is a joint strategy which
needed to be concerted and it needed to have some teeth.
"Now that work is now complete, we will adopt the
strategy on Tuesday. Three key points for now: We are
talking about closer customs co-operation including
joint border enforcement actions. We are talking about
joint enforcement in third countries, including the
creation of teams of EU and US diplomats in third
countries specially tasked with data- and
intelligence-sharing and joint IP surveillance and
responsibilities…and we need strongly increased
collaboration with the private sector. As I know from
China the European industry is exasperated with the
costs and damage incurred for poor Intellectual property
protection. So we are working very closely with the
industry.
"Our initial efforts will focus on working with China
and Russia in this field as well as other areas in Asia,
the Middle East and Latin America. You’ll get a lot more
detail next week. And Matthew can talk to you further
about it if you want.
"Let me leave it there because I am afraid that in a
couple of minutes I will run…you forgive me… and I want
to take any immediate questions you may have."
Further Contact Information
Press and Public Diplomacy
Delegation of the European Commission
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
http://www.eurunion.org/PressRoom
Tel: 202-862-9552
Fax: 202-429-1766
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