BusinessEurope in Washington: “Transatlantic relationship has never been so important”

As a testimonial of the importance of the transatlantic relationship, the first visit of Fredrik Persson as BusinessEurope’s President was to Washington D.C. this week. The agenda included meetings with the United States Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce, the State Department, Congress, as well as with the U.S. business community: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Business Roundtable. “The Transatlantic relationship has never been so important, owing to shared challenges of the magnitude of geopolitical tensions, high energy costs and inflationary pressure. We need to work on reducing costs of doing business across the Atlantic through the work of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council. We also need to address emerging problems, including the discriminatory elements in the Inflation Reduction Act, before they take away the spotlight from the good work we are doing together”, Persson said. Ahead of the next ministerial-level meeting of the TTC, he added, "we want to see improvements in the interactions between policymakers and business in the different workstreams of the TTC. This will allow industry to contribute with more relevant input to the work of the various working groups and will ensure that the TTC supports the Transatlantic economy.”