Neal Says Return to TTIP Talks Needed to Counter China
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., says that the new administration should prioritize a free trade deal with the European Union following the template of USMCA, saying President Donald Trump's abandonment of serious trade talks with Europe was a “particularly detrimental blunder.”
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Former U.S. trade representative Susan Schwab said the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership talks failed because of Europe, not the U.S. (see 2011170050), and the immediate past EU trade commissioner, when he was still in office, said there's no way TTIP will be resurrected (see 2007300048). The current director-general for trade at the EU, Sabine Weyand, also said TTIP can't be revived, and dismissed the argument that Neal makes, that it would help with China (see 2009150067).
“The Trump Administration’s unsophisticated response to [China's] economic and industrial ambitions was limited to laying down tariffs on nearly $400 billion in Chinese imports. Unbothered, China has advanced other troubling initiatives. It’s forcibly assimilated Uyghur and other Muslim and religious minority populations, including through the use of concentration camps and forced labor. Just this year the government has brazenly taken steps to snuff out democratic institutions and practices in Hong Kong. And now, China is menacing Taiwan with threats of invasion,” Neal said in a statement.
“Our partners across the Atlantic have shown a willingness to embark on a new, substantial trade relationship with the United States, and we should embrace this opportunity,” Neal said. “Concrete, bold action -- like achieving a new trade deal with Europe -- is necessary for our nation’s and people’s future economic success. Otherwise, the fault for America’s decline and loss of relevance will be no one’s but our own.”
The EU is calling for coordination on rule-making and for an end to the Airbus-Boeing tariffs and Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminum, but is not talking about tariff liberalization in general (see 2012020038).