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Prepared by the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, Department of State, December 13, 1996
The New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA) was launched one year ago in Madrid with the aim of giving new focus and direction to U.S.-EU political and economic cooperation in Europe and globally. The Agenda and its accompanying Action Plan identified more than 150 specific items for U.S.-EU cooperation. It builds on the 1990 Transatlantic Declaration's basic principles and consultative structure for the U.S.-EU partnership. The NTA establishes a framework for political cooperation and provides an additional mechanism at the senior level for managing our differences.
The NTA set four major goals which are the framework for U.S.-EU joint action: 1) promoting peace, development, and democracy around the world; 2) responding to global challenges; 3) contributing to the expansion of world trade and closer economic ties; and 4) building bridges across the Atlantic by encouraging closer communication between people.
Collaboration on global issues is a key element of the U.S.-EU partnership. The U.S. and the EU cooperated closely in support of the elections in Bosnia and are now coordinating our actions on reconstruction of that war-ravaged region. The U.S. and the EU also are consulting closely on the Middle East Peace Process and the humanitarian tragedy in Central Africa. To counter the threat of nuclear proliferation, the U.S. has worked to frame the terms of the EU's participation in the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO). The U.S. also is working together with the EU to protect the environment in the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union through support for a network of regional environmental centers to designed to encourage local NGO involvement. For better overall coordination of our aid programs, the U.S. and EU held a high-level assistance conference in late October 1996.
In the economic and trade area, the U.S. and the EU have been working hard to reduce and eliminate barriers to the free flow of goods and services across the Atlantic and to strengthen the multilateral trading system. The U.S. and the EU agreed at the Singapore WTO Ministerial Conference this month to an Information Technology Agreement, eliminating tariffs in this key sector by the year 2000. In line with the recommendations from the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) conference in November, the U.S. and the EU have assented to Mutual Recognition Agreements for product testing in sectors representing more than $40 billion in two-way trade and launched a Transatlantic Small Business Initiative. The U.S. and the EU will be signing a Customs Cooperation Agreement to streamline the sharing of information and speed the flow of goods across the Atlantic.
An innovative element of the NTA is its focus on the issues of crime and narcotics, health and exchanges. The U.S. and the EU have begun planning for a global early warning and response network against communicable diseases. The U.S. and the EU also have convened a U.S.-EU Task Force to strengthen transatlantic exchanges.
The December 16 U.S.-EU Summit caps a set of meetings between the U.S. and EU during the Irish Presidency. A Senior Level Group, co-chaired on the U.S. side by Under Secretaries of State Peter Tarnoff and Joan Spero and which met in Washington in early September and in Dublin in late November, is presenting a report on the status and progress of key, high-priority issues to U.S. and EU leaders in advance of the summit. Further meetings during the autumn between U.S. and EU political directors and of the NTA Task Force provided direction and continuity for progress on outstanding issues under the NTA umbrella.
More information on U.S.-EU relations
NTA Accomplishments Under the Irish Presidency
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