After years of trade disputes, US and European Union officials are considering a drastic change in direction: a US-EU trade pact. It would be the world’s largest trade agreement, and could give a significant boost to both struggling economies.
Negotiations are still in the preliminary stages, and both sides will have much to overcome — including differences on agriculture, food safety, and climate change legislation — but top EU and US officials insist they want to see the pact happen. Even America’s main labor group, the AFL-CIO, which usually opposes such trade pacts, said it wouldn’t interfere with this one. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also appears to be in support of the trade agreement: