U.S. and EU Move Toward Increased Regulatory Cooperation, including AEO and C-TPAT Mutual Recognition in 2011

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December 22, 2010

The U.S.-EU Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) issued a joint statement on December 17, 2010, outlining the tangible progress made in a variety of areas during their December 16-17 meeting.

 

AEO-C-TPAT Mutual Recognition

The EU Trade Commissioner and the U.S. Commissioner for Customs and Border Protection announced agreement on the final steps towards recognizing each other’s “trusted trader” programs: the EU’s Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) program and the United States’ Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program. They called for establishing such mutual recognition by October 31, 2011.

Regulatory Cooperation

The two parties agreed to shared principles aimed at reducing unintended barriers to trade by ensuring early coordination between EU and U.S. regulators. These shared principles included transparency, public participation, consideration of costs and benefits, cost-effectiveness, burden minimization, and the use of flexible regulatory tools. Areas of potential early coordination include energy efficiency, e-health, nutrition labeling, electric drive vehicles, and product safety. The TEC tasked the High Level Regulatory Cooperation Forum with developing mutual regulations by the end of February, 2011.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the European Chemicals’ Agency signed a Statement of Intent to exchange technical information on Chemicals.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the European Commission also signed a joint declaration to continue technical-level collaboration on testing, technology, market and other issues related to the development of energy related regulations.

Innovation

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Commission on e-health cooperation.

The TEC launched the Innovation Action Partnership (IAP) work plan, which includes developing and promoting joint innovation policies and assuring access to critical raw materials. The U.S. and EU also launched an Anti-Counterfeiting Website to help companies protect their intellectual property rights.


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