International Business and Technology Blog

The term Nordics describes a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic, comprising 5 countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

Much envied with regards to their wealth, open societies, technologies and, of course, well-being. Non-Nordics wonder how do they do it? How does a vast region with just 25 million people, speaking 4 languages, generate a GDP of $850Bn, making them amongst the richest countries in the world and ranking 6th in theEuropean Union (EU) after Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain and they all seem to be so happy?

Way back in May 2015, the European Commission (EC) presented its Digital Single Market (DSM) directive. Four months later and the program has advanced rapidly, with all concerned stakeholders now actively involved: not surprising given the economic and political import of the DSM! The European Parliament has held debates and issued statements; the European Council similarly, the EC has held numerous public consultations and published findings; European and non-European business interests (from digital infrastructure to service providers) are researching, employing lobbyists and taking position, while lawyers and accountants are readying themselves for streams of income. US interests are not on the side-lines, in fact market makers and leaders such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (GAFA) are the most visible piece of this DSM influencing relationship, which the US Mission to the EU considers one of its top three priorities.

Completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union is a huge challenge, above all at this particularly delicate time as the detailed program faces strong political as well as economic headwinds. But inaction can’t be blamed on lack of Presidents in Europe - we have lots of them: European Commission (EC) President, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the Euro Summit, Donald Tusk, President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, and President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz. Earlier this year, the 5Ps got together for some quality time, culminating with the release of the "Completing Europe's Economic and Monetary Union" report. Coming after numerous reports over many years with similar objectives, this latest missive is grandly dubbed the "Five Presidents Report".

Just over two years ago in July 2013, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations began; relatively recent in the grand scheme of the past 500 years of transatlantic trade relations. Practiced in the art of international trade negotiations, US and EU trade teams run permanent parallel trade negotiations, currently with more than 20 other countries and trading blocs (including China, India, ASEAN…), and consider TTIP progress as “very good”. Back in July 2015, trade teams met in Brussels for the 10th TTIP Round of Negotiations, described as low key. EU chief negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero, summed up the week’s work: “At their last meeting in June, the leaders of the G7, including Presidents Juncker, Tusk and Obama, gave the EU and US clear indications to intensify our discussions on TTIP and identify the way forward on all areas” and that this has now been achieved. However, today TTIP is about politics, and finding that way forward. A political review has been convened for later this September 2015 between EU Commissioner Cecelia Malmström and US Trade Representative Mike Froman, and is understood to be critical as to where TTIP goes next in terms of timing and action. The other takeaway from round #10 as Bercero aptly put it: “we want to make the life of SMEs easier”.

The transatlantic economy is bigger than ever. Big, trillions big and compared to other international economic relations, the biggest by far. US foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe totals >$13.6 (£8.4) trillion. By return of compliment, European FDI in the USA has reached >$9 (£5.8) trillion. Do the math, and we have >$22 (£14.2) trillion of transatlantic FDI. Need more convincing? The transatlantic economy generates >$5.5 (£3.5) trillion in annual total commercial sales. The detail is to be found in this year’s “Transatlantic Economy 2015 Report” which puts it succinctly: “Despite economic turbulence, the US and Europe remain each other’s most important markets. No other commercial artery in the world is as integrated…” The Transatlantic Economy 2015 Report is an Annual Survey of Jobs, Trade and Investment, conducted by authorities on the subject including John Hopkins University, the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU) and the Trans-Atlantic Business Council (TABC). The full version comprises 112 information packed pages, reminding us all (which we do need from time to time) of the pre-eminent importance of the economic relationship between the 62 European countries (28 of which are in the European Union) and the 50 United States. The report is very readably structured into: A Tale of Two Economies, The Post-Crisis Transatlantic Economy, The 50 US States and, the last chapter is entitled, European Countries. These are then followed by the somewhat heavy going statistic packed appendices, of which there are more than 40 pages! If you are looking for US/EU stats, look no further. For the time pressed amongst you, I strongly recommend the Transatlantic Economy 2015 Pocket Version, a more digestible 28 pages. Let me share with you some of the key points that I found most revealing and useful.

Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Trade, made the point clearly: “If the European Parliament (EP) or the Bundestag vote against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) or the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), don’t blame it on me. It’s the national governments that need to convince their people on the benefits>.” TTIP requires votes in favor by the EP and each of the 28 national parliaments. So once negotiations are complete, TTIP will face a mere 29 democratic hurdles. Across the EU, media (primarily social media) feeds us a regular anti-TTIP diet. Yet, the trade and investment benefits are so clearly self-evident to many of the Europeans who are responsible for such agreements, that they think that they are no longer obliged to repeatedly explain and justify TTIP. An insight into why is the background of over 1,400 such successful agreements negotiated by the EU over the past 50 years supporting European companies as they trade and invest internationally. And the result is, in case you were unaware, that the EU 28 is now the world’s biggest trader and investor and recipient of foreign investments.

The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) is an alliance of >380 European organizations campaigning against TTIP and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a free trade agreement between Canada and the EU. Members of ECI “believe that these two trade and investment agreements must be stopped because they pose a threat to democracy, the rule of law, the environment, health, public services as well as consumer and labour rights”. The basic ECI premise is that these agreements “increase the power of multinationals at the expense of democracy and the general good”. During the past month, there have been hundreds of anti-TTIP protests organized across Europe, none more so than in Germany.  

ibt partners is proud to have won the best Innovative Company 2015 Award, in the annual British Consul General Awards by the British American Business Council (BABC). On Friday the 29th May 2015, in Chicago, Illinois at the splendid British Consul General's Residence (with incredible views of Lake Michigan) during a lavish black tie evening reception, the winners were announced. 

New York, NY hosted, for four days between the 20 to 24 April 2015, the 9th round of U.S. – EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Traditionally, this respectfully rotated between Brussels, Belgium and Washington DC. What next? Las Vegas, to compete with Mayweather and Pacquiao? Somehow the latter's $300M television rights alone makes the drawing power competition somewhat unequal. Despite, or even perhaps because of the venue change, the US and EU Chief Negotiators, Dan Mullaney and Ignacio Garcia Bercero led their respective negotiating teams fighting strategically, leveraging data and information harvested from previous rounds and covered much needed ground.

Watch out “Les Gafa” are about! So says the EU Commission. The French provided this useful acronym, which encompasses a lot more than those four leviathan companies, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. It is all about entrenched EU industries protecting their turf, tax revenues (who is collecting and who is not) and all this wrapped into privacy concerns, when helpful! It was a big month for Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, as she unveiled long awaited accusations against Google.