Barriers or Benefits?: Regulation in Transatlantic Trade

David Vogel argues that transatlantic regulatory conflict has less to do with protectionism and more to do with deeply rooted differences in cultural values and political priorities in Europe and the United States. These differences, he explains, constitute a fundamental and ongoing source of trade conflict between the EU and the U.S.

The pattern of EU-U.S. regulatory relations has important implications, not only for the United States and Western Europe, but for the entire global economy. Whatever regulatory standards both adopt become de facto global standards. According to Vogel, the most important challenge for the U.S. and the EU is to promote and strengthen international regulatory cooperation. Each needs to pay more attention to their common interests in promoting international trade and improving global standards than to their often heated differences over particular consumer and environmental policies.