EU/US : DE GUCHT MAKES CASE FOR NEW TRADE PACT AT HARVARD.

During his first trip to the United States since talks for a new EU-US trade pact were announced, Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht has outlined why the accord is needed and what it will likely contain. Speaking at Harvard University in Massachusetts, on 2 March, he explained that weak economic growth in Europe and the US coupled with the rapid rise of China, India and Brazil were the prime motivators behind the move. The EU is "still feeling the aftershocks" of the crisis that began in 2008, while "in America, the clean-up operation is further advanced, but the recovery remains fragile," and a new trade deal could create "hundreds of thousands of jobs," he said. The EU and US would also be reclaiming the mantle of leadership in advancing trade liberalisation, the World Trade Organisation having failed to deliver on this front in recent years, he noted. The accord can be "a policy laboratory for the new trade rules we need".

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