EU renews call for US trade pact

EU renews call for US trade pact Europe’s top trade official has called for the EU and US to launch negotiations for a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement “as soon as possible”, giving fresh impetus to a transatlantic initiative that has languished for years.
Karel De Gucht, the EU trade commissioner, presented such an agreement as a way for both sides to generate much-needed economic growth while re-energising a relationship that has suffered from drift and indifference.
“Europe, many Americans seem to think . . . is above all the place that can’t get its economic act together. Both their hopes and their fears go out towards other parts of the world,” Mr De Gucht said in a characteristically candid address at the Liberal Democrats party conference in Dublin.

http://link.ft.com/r/EB8122/MJS9KQ/3O62UJ/B5HNQ8/JQJO13/28/h?a1=2012&a2=11&a3=9