Globilaization

EU and US first economic collaboration began after the WW II when the Marshal Plan was launched by the United States to help war shattered Europe get back on its feet economically. The environment within which EU-US are trading today has changed profoundly since the years of Marshal Plan. Not only has the environment changed but also the challenges EU and US as two main "global powers" face nowadays. The Cold War is over and today EU and US leaders have to adapt their economic and political policies to successfully tackle issues such as growing gap between rich and poor, economic disparities between South and North, global trade and international terrorism. The modus operandi in the age of Globalization is without a doubt multilateralism and growing transatlantic interdependence.(Guay, p. 97) President of European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso after his recent visit to Washington called for stronger economic cooperation and interdependence between EU and US as essential in establishing future economic progress, world stability and peace. Barroso states: "Strong, multilateral institutions, while more important than ever before, ... They are simply tools for promoting peace, stability and economic development... In these times of rapid change, we have a greater interest than ever before in stepping up our relationship...As President Bush said at his inauguration: 'All that we seek to achieve in the world requires that America and Europe remain close partners'". (DG External relations, 10/18/05) Despite US's long history of political and economic alliance and the fact that they are each other's largest and best trading partners there has been lots of frictions and disagreements over important policies such as agriculture and media. It is important to mention that due to European's and United States' different philosophical approaches towards same issues and different regulatory responses have not made the transatlantic trade less complicated. (Donnelley, p. 47) United States heavily use of economic power to influence foreign policy and Europe's tendencies to "Fortress Europe" approach when it comes down to marketing its culture have created tensions between these two trading partners. Van Oudenaren writes: "EU, its member states... are committed to other values - the maintenance of the countryside and a rural way of life, protection of European languages and culture from the 'invasion' of American films and television shows."(Van Oudenaren, p. 253)

In order to overcome these differences EU and US have set up different agreements such GATT, the Uruguay Round and 1993 US-EU agricultural agreement on how to reduce export subsidies. Although these agreements heave helped greatly in some aspects of economic partnership, differences especially concerning US-EU trading approach towards their third parties