US Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue invoked the historic and deep ties between Europe and the United States, calling on the transatlantic community to “inject more ambition into our own economic partnership,” by completing a US-EU economic and trade pact to lower barriers, converge regulations, and expand job-creating trade and investment. 

At an event hosted by the Atlantic Council on April 18—on the eve of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund spring meetings—Donohue proposed a three-pronged approach for the transatlantic community to regain its economic footing:

• Cohesion between the United States and Europe to defend free markets: “Sticking together as an alliance for prosperity and security is the only way to keep the transatlantic community strong and relevant in the dynamic decades ahead.”
• Recovery in Europe and the United States, which means “We must also put our fiscal houses in order—no more delays, no more excuses.”
• Growth through launching a US-EU Free Trade and Economic Pact as a counterpart to our NATO ties: “The experts have long touted the military interoperability at NATO to meet shared threats. It’s time to match it with greater economic interoperability to seize shared opportunities.” 

It is “time to stop the hand-wringing” in Washington and Brussels, and jointly address unacceptably high unemployment, slow growth rates, and a volatile set of global security challenges. 

“Our decision must be to grow and to lead—and based on who we are, what we stand for, and all that we have achieved in the past, I am confident that this is the map we will follow,” said Donohue. 

Video of the event and transcript of the speech can be found on the Atlantic Council's webpage at:

http://www.acus.org/event/jumpstarting-transatlantic-partnership-jobs-and-growth. High resolution photos available upon request.