Remarks by President Obama, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron, European Commission President Barroso, and European Council President Van Rompuy on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

Lough Erne Resort
Lough Erne, Northern Ireland

3:23 P.M. BST
PRIME MINISTER CAMERON:  Well, good afternoon and welcome, everyone.  Welcome to Lough Erne.

I always said that the whole point of this meeting in Lough Erne is to fire up our economies and drive growth and prosperity around the world -- to do things that make a real difference to people’s lives.  And there is no more powerful way to achieve that than by boosting trade.  And there’s no better way than by launching these negotiations on a landmark deal between the European Union and the United States of America -- a deal that could add as much as a £100 billion to the EU economy, £80 billion to the U.S. economy, and as much as £85 billion to the rest of the world.

And we should be clear about what these numbers could really mean:  2 million extra jobs, more choice and lower prices in our shops.  We’re talking about what could be the biggest bilateral trade deal in history; a deal that will have a greater impact than all the other trade deals on the table put together.

When we last met at Camp David in the G8 and we first suggested we could reach this moment here in Lough Erne, many doubted it would be possible.  Everyone knows these trade deals are difficult.  Some take years to get off the ground, and some never happen at all.  So it’s a testament to the leadership and the political will of everyone here that we’ve reached this point.  We must maintain that political will in the months ahead.  This is a once-in-a-generation prize and we are determined to seize it.

President Barroso -- Jose Manuel, over to you.

PRESIDENT BARROSO:  Thank you.  Thank you, David.

Today is a special day for the relation between European Union and the United States.  Today we announce we will start negotiations of a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement.  Very frankly, two years ago, very few would have bet that today we’d be in the position to launch negotiations of an ambitious European Union-United States free trade agreement.

And when the teams of the European Commission and United States will meet for the first round on the negotiations next month, it will be the start of a joint undertaking of real strategic importance.  Our joint endeavor is part of our overall agenda for growth and jobs to both sides of the Atlantic by boosting trade and investment.  It is also a powerful demonstration of our determination to shape a open rules-based role.

We intend to move forward fast.  We can say that neither of us will give up content for the sake of speed, but we intend to make rapid progress.  I’d rather see the core challenge, moving our regulatory regimes closer, and addressing the harmful effect of behind-the-border trade barriers.  Huge economic benefits are expected from reducing red tape, avoiding divergent regulations for the future.

I’d rather have our companies invest in you, in overseas products and services and job creation, than in double-testing, or multiple inspections, or even separate manufacturing lines.  Our regulators need to build bridges faster and more systematically.  The current economic climate requires us to join forces and to do more with less.  More importantly, in doing so, we will remain strong global players who set the standards for the 21st century.

Therefore, I call on our legislatures, European -- especially European Parliament, our regulators, our civil society to play a constructive and engaged part in these negotiations.

The business communities on both sides of the Atlantic, in particular, have been a strong advocate of free trade and investment between Europe and the United States.  And this is also good for the rest of the world.  Given the integrated supply chains in today’s global markets, everyone can benefit from this agreement.

Integrating two of the most developed, most sophisticated, and certainly the largest economies in the world can never be an easy task, but we will find convincing answers to legitimate concerns.  We will find solutions to thorny issues.  We will keep our eyes on the prize, and we’ll succeed.  So even if these negotiations may not always be easy, I’m sure they will be worth it for the sake of the jobs it creates and because of the strategic dimension of what we are doing -- to write the next chapter of what is our common history also forged by the sense that we share the same principles and values, the principles and values of open economies and open societies.

PRIME MINISTER CAMERON:  Thank you very much, Jose Manuel.  President Obama -- Barack.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Thank you very much, David.  And good afternoon.  It is wonderful to be here in Lough Erne.  And thank you so much to the people of Northern Ireland for their warm hospitality.  And, Prime Minister Cameron, thank you for all the outstanding arrangements.

Among the things we’ll discuss here are promoting new growth and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.  And I’m pleased to join these leaders to announce the launch of negotiations on a new trade agreement that will help us do just that -- the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, also known as T-TIP.

I want to thank not only the gentlemen on this stage, but also President Hollande, Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Letta, and Taoiseach  Kenny.  We just had an excellent meeting.  And I’m proud to say that America will have the opportunity to host the first round of negotiations next month in Washington.

As has already been mentioned, the U.S.-EU relationship is the largest in the world.  It makes up nearly half of global GDP.  We trade about $1 trillion in goods and services each year.  We invest nearly $4 trillion in each other’s economies.  And all that supports around 13 million jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

And this potentially groundbreaking partnership would deepen those ties.  It would increase exports, decrease barriers to trade and investment.  As part of broader growth strategies in both our economies, it would support hundreds of thousands of jobs on both sides of the ocean.

So I’m pleased to hear that this negotiation enjoys the support not only of the countries that are here today, but also the broader EU membership.  I can tell you that it has been warmly received in the United States as well, both in our Congress and in our business community.

And that broad support, on both sides of the Atlantic, will help us work through some of the tough issues that have already been mentioned.  There are going to be sensitivities on both sides.  There are going to be politics on both sides.  But if we can look beyond the narrow concerns to stay focused on the big picture -- the economic and strategic importance of this partnership -- I’m hopeful we can achieve the kind of high-standard, comprehensive agreement that the global trading system is looking to us to develop.

America and Europe have done extraordinary things together before.  And I believe we can forge an economic alliance as strong as our diplomatic and security alliances -- which, of course, have been the most powerful in history.  And, by doing that, we can also strengthen the multilateral trading system.

So this Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is going to be a priority of mine and my administration.  It is important that we get it right -- and that means resisting the temptation to downsize our ambitions or avoid tough issues just for the sake of getting a deal.  And then make sure also -- it’s important that we also make sure that it’s part of an overall plan to do what it takes to promote growth and jobs.  Trade is critical but it is not alone a silver bullet; it has to be part of a comprehensive strategy that we pursue on both sides of the Atlantic.  That’s what our people deserve.

I very much look forward to working with my fellow leaders to make it happen.  We’re going to give a strong mandate to our negotiators, but occasionally I suspect we’re going to have to intervene and break through some logjams.  Nevertheless, I’m confident that we can get it done.

So thank you very much.

PRIME MINISTER CAMERON:  Thank you, Barack.  And thank you very much for that.  Now, we’re going to hear from the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy -- Herman.

PRESIDENT VAN ROMPUY:  Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.  This is a special moment.  At the last EU-U.S. summit with President Obama, we jointly decided to see if launching such historic negotiations would be possible.  It was.  And now we can already start the talks.  A year and a half ago, we were not even sure the place had a door, and now we are entering the negotiating room together.

It's a sign of the strong political will on both sides.  This February, in the European Council, our European heads of state and government reiterated their support for a comprehensive trade and investment deal with the United States.  A political signal formalized last Friday by ministers and the Irish presidency formally gave the EU negotiators the green light to start the talks.

It shows the political will to work together -- to work together with our long-standing and most trusted partner on the essential objective for governments on either side of the Atlantic -- growth, jobs, and prosperity.  We both know there are no magic solutions.  Recent economic turbulence underlines this.  But we cannot expect to harvest new jobs today; we can plant the seeds for the jobs of tomorrow.  And that’s exactly what the trade agreement is about.

Together, Europe and the United States are the backbone of the world economy.  Opening up that space further for opportunities for business and consumers is simply common sense.  Not just our own economies, but also those of our trading partners will benefit.  The positive ramifications will even go beyond the economy as such.

We are making our economies all over the world more interdependent, and this will make the world safer.  What is at stake with the transatlantic free trade area is to enshrine Europe and America's role as the world's standard-setters, beyond product specifications, by setting a positive forces and shaping the way we work and the way we live our daily lives.  This is of key strategic significance.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Atlantic is not the past; it is also the future.  And that’s why we are impatient to start, although we know that negotiations won't be a smooth ride.  Obviously, there are and will be sensitive issues on each side.  With flexibility, open-mindedness and some creativity, the greatest asset for negotiators and statesmen, I'm confident we will find solutions.  There is too much at stake.

We will find these solutions not only because we know the great benefit it will bring, not only because we share the same rules-based approach at home and abroad in these matters, but also because trade is one vital part of our overall relationship.  It will link our transatlantic destinies even closer together.

The longer the negotiations, therefore, stand for our continued common commitment to engage with each other in order to engage with the world.  The EU and its member states are ready to engage and look forward to the new trade landscape we will shape together.

Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER CAMERON:  Thank you very much, Herman.  We'll be now welcoming the other guests to the G8, and we'll be taking questions at the end of the G8 at the end of our discussions.

Thank you very much, indeed.

END
3:35 P.M. BST