U.S. Chamber Welcomes ECIPE Report Showing Need for Eliminating Taxes on Transatlantic Trade

Rashish Calls on Administration to Take
‘Bold Steps to Open Our Single Biggest Market’

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today welcomed the release of a new report by the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) demonstrating the significant economic and trade benefits of eliminating tariffs on transatlantic trade. This simple action, according to ECIPE’s analysis, would increase U.S. and EU exports to each other by more than $50 billion each, 17% higher than they would have been, by 2015.

“U.S. and European policy makers need to seriously consider the findings of this report,” said Peter Rashish, vice president of Europe and Eurasia for the U.S. Chamber. “If the Administration truly wants to reach its goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years, it must take bold steps to open our single biggest market.”

The report was prepared by ECIPE Director Fredrik Erixon and his team, with a grant from the U.S. Chamber and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, using widely respected economic models and techniques to project the GDP, national income, and trade effects from eliminating U.S. and EU tariffs on goods imported from the other party. Although both the U.S. and the EU have generally low tariffs, the huge volume of trade between the world’s two largest economies means that cost reductions and productivity gains from removing tariffs are significant.

More than one-third of the annual U.S.-EU commerce of $600 billion is intra-company trade; analysts have long argued that tariffs on intra-company trade serve no purpose, and their elimination would lower costs and enhance the global competitiveness of these companies.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.

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