Travel Goods Association

FROM WASHINGTON

Contact: Nate Herman, TGA's Director of Government Relations, at 877-842-1938, x-708 or nate@travel-goods.org

Obama calls for U.S.-Europe FTA

President Barack Obama announced in his Feb. 12 State of the Union address that he plans to launch negotiations towards a U.S.-Europe Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Once completed, a U.S.-Europe FTA would create the world's largest market for travel goods, accounting for approximately 40% of the world's consumption of travel goods. The proposed FTA would also offer opportunities to move the U.S. and Europe towards regulatory harmonization as well as address key issues U.S. travel goods firms face entering the European market.