EU, U.S. talks to make headway on cutting red tape

By Huw Jones

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union and U.S. officials meeting in Washington on Friday for talks on cutting red tape expect progress towards barrier-free trans-atlantic trade but no big breakthroughs, business groups said.

The Trans-atlantic Economic Council was set up last year to weed out unnecessary regulation that bumps up costs for companies that want to operate in Europe and the United States. Its third meeting was postponed ahead of the November U.S. presidential elections.

"The most important thing is that it happens, that we have continuity," said EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, who heads the 27-nation bloc's delegation.

"We will discuss the handover to the next administration. We will have progress in some areas. The idea is to have a barrier-free trans-atlantic market place by 2015. There is a long way to go," he said.

The EU-U.S. trade link represents 40 percent of world economic growth and 60 percent of global trade, and business lobbyists want a commitment to push ahead with the TEC's work, saying it could save industry billions of euros in compliance costs.

"What we are hoping for is some continuity," said Kimberly Skinner, of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Brussels.

The TEC is expected make progress on mutual recognition of securities regulation to ease compliance burdens on trans-atlantic banks like JP Morgan, HSBC and Goldman Sachs.

The EU also wants Washington to scrap a U.S. requirement that all small appliances, like kettles, exported to America undergo local U.S. standards conformity tests, which push up the price. The EU uses self-certification.