Andrew Millar: A Winning Trade Deal for Arkansas

Editor’s note: This guest commentary was provided by British Consul General Andrew Millar.  It first appeared in the magazine issue of Talk Business Arkansas, which you can read here.

As British Consul General for the southern US, a big part of my job is helping businesses to make the most of opportunities for trade and investment between Arkansas and the United Kingdom (UK). There is no shortage of opportunities; in fact, the UK is the largest European market for Arkansas exports and supports over 4,000 jobs in the state. This makes the UK the third largest foreign employer in Arkansas. To a great extent that is because, compared to the rest of the world, trade between the US and the UK is relatively free. But I also know from speaking to local business leaders that there are still some barriers—like tariffs and regulatory differences—that prevent them from doing even more trade, investing even more, and bringing in even more jobs.

Realizing this, the United States and the European Union (EU), the group of trading nations of which the UK is a leading member, have got together to negotiate a deal to reduce or remove as many barriers as possible. The first round of negotiations has already taken place, and we hope to reach an agreement within the next 18 months or so. We are calling it the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or ‘TTIP’ for short.

The US and the EU are the two largest economies in the world, with a combined value of around $30 trillion. US-EU trade is worth $2.5 billion every day, one third of all world trade. A million jobs in the US depend on trade with the UK alone, and they tend to be good, well paid jobs, with salaries above the US average. In Arkansas only, the EU purchased goods worth $1.4 billion in 2012 (15% of goods exports) and services worth $707 million in 2011 (32% of service exports). So we always knew that the boost to our economies from freeing up trade was going to be large.

Now, the numbers are in. A study published today finds that TTIP could add more than 740,000 jobs to the US economy as a whole—that’s the equivalent of the entire working population of West Virginia. The average American household stands to gain around $865 every year as a result of lower prices and higher average wages.

What does this mean for Arkansas? The same study predicts that a US-EU trade deal could boost Arkansas’s exports to Europe by 26.6%, and add as many as 6,210 jobs. Many of those gains will be realized in Arkansas’ transportation, chemicals, metals and motor vehicles sectors, which could be exporting more and more of their wares to Europe.

These numbers show that free trade is not just an idea. It has real benefits, both for business and for hard-working people. And that’s why Arkansans, and all Americans, should be excited about this deal.

Andrew Millar has been British Consul General in Houston, Texas since August 2011. His territory covers Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. The Consul General represents the UK government and is typically responsible for consular, visa and trade activities in its region.