Berlin - The United States welcomes a proposal from German
Chancellor Angela Merkel for an improved economic relationship
between the US and the European Union, US Treasury Undersecretary
Robert Kimmitt said in Berlin Monday.
Kimmitt said the immediate goal was to deliver an initial set of
concrete results at the EU-US summit in Washington on April 30.
Turning to recent turmoil on world markets sparked by fears
regarding the US economy, Kimmit said: 'The US economy remains
strong. The outlook is positive.'
Speaking to a conference of Merkel's Christian Democrat
parliamentary caucus, Kimmitt welcomed plans to cut the burden of EU
regulations by a quarter.
'To enhance our transatlantic economic relationship, we must
reinvigorate common efforts to address and reconcile our systemic
differences and thereby reduce obstacles to economic growth,' Kimmitt
said.
Merkel's initiative, made during Germany's EU presidency, 'sends a
very strong political signal,' he added, while stressing that it
would not detract from attempts to kickstart the stalled Doha Round
of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks.
Kimmitt pointed to the recently negotiated EU-US Air Transport
Agreement as demonstrating the two sides could 'reach common
understandings on difficult economic and regulatory matters affecting
our most important business sectors.'
Other areas being discussed were regulatory cooperation,
enforcement of intellectual property rights, promotion of effective
accounting standards and integrating efforts on energy security and
climate change.
Contrary to the conventional view in Europe, the US viewed climate
change as a 'serious challenge,' Kimmitt said, pointing to steps
taken by the US to increase international interaction on the issue.
He highlighted also the publication of a set of principles by the
US on financial regulators with the aim of addressing policy issues
linked to the rapid growth of hedge funds and private equity groups.
Germany is seeking to coordinate the regulatory frameworks on
either side of the Atlantic to lower bureaucratic hurdles and cut
transaction costs.
On fears that the US home mortgage market was shaky, Kimmitt said
the real estate market appeared to be stabilizing and that there had
been no knock-on effects on consumer confidence.
The US authorities were, however, watching developments in the
mortgage sector closely.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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