EU und USA wollen Handels- und Investitionshemmnisse abbauen[en] 

Meeting on 9 November for a stocktaking event before next year’s EU-US Summit, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen said that they planned to target a limited number of projects, notably in the automotive sector and health-related industries, where they will co-operate to reduce regulatory trade barriers by the end of 2007. 

"[We] need to continue to focus on the burdensome regulations that slow down economic growth" said Gutierrez at the second informal economic ministerial meeting. 

With trade flows between the EU and the US representing around €1.7 billion per day, the transatlantic economic relationship is the largest in the world, but businesses on both sides of the Atlantic complain that complying with differentiated regulation and bureaucratic barriers costs them millions of dollars annually. 

Gutierrez and Verheugen were joined by the US energy secretary and the Finnish trade minister. They also discussed strengthening joint efforts to ensure energy security by diversifying energy sources, and to put an end to the piracy and counterfeiting of European and American products in China, India and other countries. 

After meeting with US Trade Representative Susan Schwab on the stalled Doha Round, Verheugen said: "Both...the secretary of commerce and the trade representative made it clear that they believe that the beginning of the year, the beginning of next year, will be the right timing."