A New Transatlantic Initiative? U.S.-EU Economic Relations in the Mid-1990s. CRS Report for Congress, September 15, 1995

A number of proposals for a new transatlantic trade and investment initiative between the United States and the European Union (EU) have been floated in recent months. Closer ties, some believe, would lead to a better transatlantic relationship. The United States Government and the European Commission are conducting independent studies to assess the feasibility of establishing a free trade area or a "transatlantic economic space." Both sides may agree, at a December 1995 summit, to intensify the U.S.-EU dialogue. Proponents of a new transatlantic initiative argue that the United States and the European Union run a risk of drifting apart in the absence of the unifying threat posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Countering the view that there is a "special relationship" between the United States and the European Union are those, like MIT economics professor Lester Thurow, who argue that in the post-Cold War world, the United States and European Union are political and economic rivals engaged in a battle "to determine who owns the twenty-first century.