Transatlantic Task Force on Trade

A major new trade-policy initiative has been launched on May 12. The Transatlantic Task Force on Trade – a joint initiative by the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) and the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) – has been set up to spur greater leadership on future trade policy in Europe and the United States. A high-level group of recognised international scholars and practitioners from academia, business, civil society and public policy will regularly convene during the year with the purpose of releasing a report with analyses and recommendations by the end of this year. 

Co-chaired by Ewa Björling, the Swedish Minister for trade, and Jim Kolbe, former member of the U.S. Congress and Senior Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Task Force has been launched at a difficult time for trade policy. Overall, trade policy in the EU and the US is fighting against diminishing expectations and general fatigue with global trade talks in the past years. The crisis, and prior global economic trends, have also shown how trade links up with many other central economic issues – and how crude mercantilist notions, yet again on the rise, are badly suited to guide an effective trade policy assisting economic growth and job creation. Fundamentally, the rise of Asia has put some Western leaders on a defensive footing and disabled the leadership role played by the transatlantic partners in the past decades, without anyone else taking up the fallen mantle.  The overall question the Task Force will seek to answer is: what role is there for transatlantic leadership for trade policy in the near-to-medium term future? 

The policy recommendations of the Task Force will be published in a final report by the end of 2011. The challenge of restoring public support for trade openness will be one major component of the report. At the centre of the report will also be leadership for global trade policy at the World Trade Organisation and bilateral transatlantic relations.

Transatlantic Task Force Members: 

• Ewa Björling (co-chair), Minister of Trade, Sweden 
• Jim Kolbe (co-chair), Former Member of U.S. Congress, Senior Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States 
• Dan Drezner, Professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University 
• Thomas Harris, Vice Chairman of Standard & Chartered
• Charles P. Heeter Jr., Chairman of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD
• Jennifer Hillman, Member of the WTO Appellate Body and Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the GMF 
• Charles S. Levy, Partner, Cassidy Levy Kent; former Senior Partner in Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP 
• Erika Mann, Director of EU Policy, Facebook; Board Member of ICANN; Former Leading Member of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade
• Patrick Messerlin, Professor of Economics at Sciences Po and Director of GEM; Co-Chairman of the Millennium Development Goals Task Force 
• Hugo Paemen, Former EU Ambassador to the U.S.; Senior Advisor for Hogan Lovells LLP 
• Ana Palacio, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain; former Senior Vice President of the World Bank 
• James H. Quigley, Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu 
• Susan C. Schwab, former US Trade Representative, Director FedEx 

Rapporteurs: 

• Fredrik Erixon, Director, ECIPE 
• Guy de Jonquières, Senior Fellow, ECIPE; former World Trade editor for the Financial Times 
• Bruce Stokes, Senior Transatlantic Fellow, GMF; Contributing editor National Journal 
• Bruce Wilson, Senior Counsel, King & Spalding; Former Director of the Legal Affairs Division, WTO 

Media enquiries: 

For further comments, please contact Fredrik Erixon (Fredrik.erixon@ecipe.org) at +32 (0)499 053 107

Media and publications

• TATF Main Report: A New Era for Transatlantic Trade Leadership
• TATF Working Paper: The multilateralism conundrum: international economic relations in the post-hegemonic era
• TATF Working Paper: Public Support for Trade Policy
  
• TATF Working Paper: Ideas for New Transatlantic Initiatives on Trade
• A podcast with a discussion between the Swedish Minister for Trade Ewa Björling and GMF Senior Transatlantic Fellow Jim Kolbe is available here.