Baucus to Discuss EU FTA During Trip to Europe

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) will push for new export opportunities for U.S. businesses and discuss a potential U.S.-EU free trade agreement (FTA), his office said in a press release. Baucus is in Europe for a series of high-level meetings with leaders regarding the eurozone’s ongoing fiscal crisis and its potential impact on the United States and the entire global economy, it said.

European leaders meeting with Senator Baucus include: In Spain, State Secretary for Economy Paseo de la Castellana, Minister of Finance and Public Administration Cristóbal Montoro, and the Governor of the Bank of Spain Luis Maria Linde. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s top advisors Lars-Hendrik Röller and Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, and Ministry of Economy State Secretary Anne-Ruth Herkes. In Belgium, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, and the Panel of European Central Bank Directors General. The U.S. and the EU share the largest trade and investment relationship in the world, the release said. Despite the global economic downturn, the combined U.S. and EU economies account for more than 40 percent of global gross domestic product, 40 percent of world trade in goods and services, 60 percent of world foreign direct investment flows and 60-70 percent of global banking assets and financial services, it said.