2013 will be the year of an EU-US free trade agreement, or at least serious negotiations towards that goal. Although this possibility has been raised many times before, only to stall in the face of tough regulatory or subsidy issues, the economic stakes are higher and the political obstacles are lower next year. Both the EU and the US desperately need faster economic growth. Monetary policy is essentially exhausted; fiscal policy is set to tighten. That leaves trade: expanding markets by removing tariffs and – more importantly – non-tariff barriers, such as licencing requirements and anti-dumping measures. Small wonder that the Obama administration is actively pursuing the Trans-Pacific Partnership to the west and raising the prospect of a US-EU deal in the east.
2013年，歐盟(EU)和美國(guó)將簽訂自由貿(mào)易協(xié)定，或者至少朝著這一目標(biāo)展開(kāi)嚴(yán)肅的談判。之前，雙方曾有多次機(jī)會(huì)簽訂協(xié)定，結(jié)果卻因棘手的監(jiān)管或補(bǔ)貼問(wèn)題而未能成行。但明年的情況將有所不同，從經(jīng)濟(jì)上講，此事的緊迫性將會(huì)加大，從政治上講，此事遇到的障礙將會(huì)減少。歐盟和美國(guó)都迫切需要加快經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)。貨幣政策基本上已經(jīng)用光了，而財(cái)政政策將會(huì)收緊。如今只剩下貿(mào)易了，也就是通過(guò)取消關(guān)稅（更重要的是取消許可證制和反傾銷措施等非關(guān)稅壁壘）來(lái)擴(kuò)大市場(chǎng)。難怪奧巴馬(Obama)政府積極向西方宣揚(yáng)《跨太平洋戰(zhàn)略經(jīng)濟(jì)伙伴關(guān)系協(xié)定》(TPP)，并在東方提出美歐簽訂貿(mào)易協(xié)定的前景。