Speaking in front of US business representatives gathered at the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU's Transatlantic Conference, Kennard spelled out two policy priorities for the coming months, echoing US President Barack Obama’s recent State of the Union address.
"I have a great sense of urgency to get things done and to have some concrete deliverables and outcome […]. No issue is more important than getting our economy moving and creating jobs," he said, adding that the fundamental ingredients for success are vision and execution.
Boosting bilateral trade, creating jobs and restoring sustained growth is at the core of the US strategic agenda in Europe.
"Because innovation and entrepreneurship are at the core of President Obama's plan of economic recovery, like they are the centrepiece of the Europe 2020 strategy, we have a great opportunity to work on these issues," Kennard stressed, noting that rather than dialogue, the EU-US relationships needs an "innovation action plan".
The US ambassador rebuffed claims that EU-US relations were irreparably damaged in December when President Obama left out the EU by concluding a climate deal with China and India. He also tried to play down a recent row over Obama's visit to Europe and the postponement of the EU-US summit.
"These ups and downs are not new," he said. "It is important to keep all this in perspective […] The EU-US economic relationship dwarfs any other economic relationship anywhere into the world and we need to educate others that this is an enduring relationship," he said.
Transatlantic economy still alive and kicking
Despite the recession, the United States and Europe remain one another's most important foreign commercial markets. No other commercial artery in the world is as integrated and fused as the transatlantic economy.
According to the Transatlantic Economy 2010 survey published by John Hopkins University and presented in Brussels yesterday during the AmCham EU event, the transatlantic economy continues to generate close to $4.28 trillion in total commercial sales a year and employs up to 14 million workers in mutually "onshored" jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.
"Trade is the conventional yardstick by which we measure and monitor economic interaction between countries, but trade alone is a misleading benchmark of international commerce," noted David Hamilton, director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at John Hopkins University, one of the author's of the survey.
"Mutual EU-US investment dwarfs trade and has become essential to US and European jobs and prosperity," he said.
Together the US and Europe accounted for only 27.1% of global exports and 34.6% of global imports in 2008. But together they accounted for 61.7% of the inward stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) and a whopping 74.9% of outward stock of FDI, reads the survey.
Despite the crisis, and sharp cyclical declines, US investment flows to Europe continue to considerably outweigh US investment elsewhere. In fact, even though US foreign direct investment to Europe dropped by 23% in 2008 and plunged by 44% in the first nine months of 2009 compared to the same period a year earlier, these drops pale in comparison to the 185% drop in US FDI flows to China, the survey outlined.
"During 2009 there was much talk of a new G2 but in our opinion this is unlikely to stand for the United States and China," noted Hamilton, stressing that a number of emerging economies do not share the core principles that underpin open, rules-based international commerce.
This point was also underlined by Ambassador Kennard, who said fears that the US and China are developing some sort of G2 relationship were unfounded.
The survey underlines that the transatlantic economy remains at the forefront of globalisation, meaning that commercial ties between US and Europe are deeper and thicker than between any other two continents.
"Our outlook for 2010 is one of guarded optimism," said Hamilton, adding that future health does not depend only on cyclical economic rebound, but also on more proactive, coordinated and forward-looking policy initiatives from policymarkers and legislators.
More, not less EU-US integration
Conscious that the Lisbon Treaty, which entered into force last December, could provide an opportunity to boost EU-US relations, the US ambassador, a former chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission, is convinced policymakers have to remove barriers.
"If you create the right regulatory environment you can keep markets open and allow new technologies to grow and create new jobs," Kennard argued, eying not only the EU but also national level.
The US mission to the EU is indeed planning to intensify work with the Union through its member states. A formalised system of exchange is being put in place between Kennard and the ambassadors in the 27 member states. "We need to foster more institutional interaction" and leverage our relationship with the member states in order to bring tangible results, Kennard added.
