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Newsroom & speeches
18 November 2003
Both the US administration and the UK Government are committed to the economic reform agenda and to sharing ideas across the Atlantic on how to improve productivity – which is essential for faster growth in the US, UK and across Europe, and for balanced global growth.
The transatlantic economic relationship now accounts for up to $2.5 trillions of commercial transactions each year, including 500 billions of foreign trade, and provides employment to over 12 million people on both sides of the Atlantic.
Europe and America account for around 55 per cent of world trade, including 60 per cent of trade in services. And a recent study showed that around half of all US Foreign Direct Investment during the 1990s went to Europe, with EU businesses accounting for nearly 75% of all FDI into the US during the same period.
Trade and investment are vital to employment and prosperity in both the European and US economies. The greatest boost to our economies would come from a successful multilateral trade liberalisation. For this reason, and because it would benefit all countries and regions of the world, we strongly support efforts to revive the Doha Development Agenda trade talks. Progress in the WTO is essential if we are to provide a kick-start to renewed global growth.
To complement that process, we believe the time is right to consider new areas for transatlantic cooperation – emphasising the strength of the economic relationship, and sending a positive message that the US and EU will work together to let business make the most of the opportunities our economic interdependence offers.
As a first step we support the production of a study led by the OECD to quantify the potential benefits of closer economic cooperation. The study can demonstrate the importance of increasing transatlantic trade and investment and help identify priority sectors where greater cooperation would yield the most immediate economic benefits to both the EU and US.
Recognising the importance of more efficient capital markets in spurring saving and investment, we will continue to work through our informal US-EU financial markets dialogue to channel US and EU (including UK) concerns to the appropriate authorities and make necessary accommodations to our respective practices while respecting objectives of our statutes. The dialogue will also continue reach out to others, as it did in a round table chaired by HM Treasury in London in September, to help identify potential regulatory issues before they become real problems.
We agree to co-chair a joint government-business meeting next year to discuss common productivity challenges and policy implications. There is potential to share best practice on areas of particular national strength, such as entrepreneurship and the use of ICT to improve productivity in the US, and to discuss challenges, such as the low levels of worker skills in the UK and tort reform in the US.
On the science and innovation agenda, the forum could explore how best to advance our knowledge economies, including through improvements to our R and D tax credits; what the future role is for government in fostering rapid application of publicly funded research in universities and government institutes; and how each of us can tackle our skills challenges for the future - in particular the shortage of science, engineering and maths graduates who can contribute to both research and industry.
Looking ahead, encouraging young entrepreneurs and bringing together some of the brightest young UK and US businessmen and women can help foster the enterprise culture in both countries. In particular, British Treasury Ministers wish to explore how, working with the US, the enterprise culture - so important to US success - can be fostered even more strongly in the UK.
The UK has committed to giving all school pupils the opportunity to experience enterprise during their school career. Both the UK and the US would benefit from sharing best practice in enterprise education, work related learning and professional development for teachers. We propose to set up a series of regular seminars for UK practitioners and policy makers to learn from the US experience and develop specific initiatives to further UK understanding of US best practice.
The UK has piloted Enterprise Scholarships to help young entrepreneurs in disadvantaged areas gain access to business and management skills. It is time to extend this initiative so that some of these British managers have the chance to spend a semester at a US business school. In addition, they will gain experience from working with entrepreneurial leaders who have successfully established businesses in low income areas of the US.
We will identify how British universities can learn from the US model and offer courses on business, leadership and entrepreneurship – open to students from other disciplines - with the aim of developing business leaders capable of anticipating, initiating, and managing change. We will consider whether action on this should be taken by the UK's new Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship, working together with universities in the UK and the US.
Cambridge University and MIT have a joint initiative designed to raise productivity. Stanford and Edinburgh have a major link up. Yorkshire universities and a group of US universities are working together.
To further enhance transatlantic collaboration between universities and research institutes, we will build closer links between technology transfer offices in the US and the UK through the exchange of technology transfer professionals.
English universities will be able to bid for support from the Higher Education Innovation Fund to pay part of the costs of an experienced US technology transfer professional on secondment, meeting the rest of the costs from their existing technology transfer budgets. This would help UK universities learn from the US’s experience in technology transfer. Benefits to the US professionals include building links with UK technology transfer offices and contacts in UK universities.
