The Transatlantic Business Council (TABC) is an

advocacy group Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the developm ...

of more than 70 multinational corporations, headquartered in the United States or Europe. A strategic programme within the TABC is the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD). The TABC, with contact offices in Washington, D.C. and Brussels, considers itself ''the only officially recognized transatlantic voice of business on trade and investment issues''. The Transatlantic Business Council is a regular participant in ad-hoc meetings on trade related issues with the European Commission.

History

The TransAtlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) was established by the US government and European Union in 1995 as the official business sector advisory group for EU and US officials on trade and investment issues. The purpose of the TABD was to foster an ongoing dialogue between business and government at the highest levels. It had become clear to both governments that international business maintains a unique and indispensable perspective on trade liberalization, and that it was necessary to create an official forum that allowed these transatlantic businesses to come together in a single setting where they would be able to address their mutual concerns.

Meetings and conferences

The first TABD conference was held in Seville, Spain in 1995 and concluded in the creation of working groups on standards and regulatory issues, trade liberalization, investment, and third country relations. As it was the first time that the private sector held an official role in determining EU/US public policy, the Seville conference signified a milestone in

transatlantic trade Transatlantic relations refer to the historic, cultural, political, economic and social relations between countries on both side of the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes it specifically means relationships between the Anglophone North American countr ...

relations.

US Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...

Ronald Brown convened the conference along with European Commission Vice President Sir Leon Brittan and Commissioner Dr. Martin Bangemann, and it was met with enthusiasm across the transatlantic business community. The last TABD program meeting took place in January in Davos/Switzerland in the margins of the World Economic Forum. Government guests and speakers included Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, OECD Secretary General

Ángel Gurría Angel is a given name meaning "angel", " messenger". In the English-speaking world Angel is used for both boys and girls. From the medieval Latin masculine name ''Angelus'', which was derived from the name of the heavenly creature (itself derived ...

and Michael Froman, Assistant to President Barack Obama and US Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs.

Founding of the TABC

The TABC was founded 1 January 2013, in a merger of the existing ''Transatlantic Business Dialogue'' (1995) and the '' European-American Business Council'' (EABC), founded in 1997 as the successor of the ''European Community Chamber of Commerce in the United States''.

Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD)

With the founding of the Transatlantic Business Council ion 2013, the ''Dialogue'' has been reshaped as a programme within the TABC. The TABD program is the highest forum within the TBC and brings together European and American CEOs and C-suite executives. The TABD meets twice a year, leading to the development of joint policy recommendations to the US and European governments on a number of trade-related issues. The TABD continually provides input on a number of trade issues, including

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

, raw materials/ recycling, and eMobility. Since 2007, the

Transatlantic Economic Council The Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) is a body set up between the United States and European Union to direct economic cooperation between the two economies. Establishment and chairmanship The TEC was established by an agreement signed on Apri ...

(TEC), which is the primary plenary for economic dialogue between the US and EU, has served as an additional platform for the TABD to exercise its advisory role. TABD’s ultimate goal has always been to facilitate the eventual establishment of a barrier-free transatlantic market, which would further global trade liberalization. Consequently, the launch of free trade negotiations between the US and EU exemplifies TABD’s efforts, and places the program in an attractive position vis-à-vis the negotiators.

Members

The list of TABC Member Companies includes a number of important multinational corporations: * AIG * Applied Materials *

ASTM ASTM International, formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials, is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, an ...

* AT&T * Audi AG * BASF * BBVA * BDO *

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, England. As of 2019, it is the large ...

* BT *

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...

* Cisco Systems * Cognizant *

Covidien Covidien was an Irish-headquartered global health care products company and manufacturer of medical devices and supplies. Covidien became an independent publicly traded company after being spun off from Tyco International in 2007. It was purcha ...

Covington & Burling Covington & Burling LLP is an American multinational law firm. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the firm advises clients on transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters. In 2021, Vault.com ranked Covington & Burling as th ...

LLP * Deloitte * Deutsche Bank *

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

* European-American Business Organization Inc. (EABO) * Electrolux * Ericsson * Expander Business Consulting *

Experian Experian is an American–Irish multinational data analytics and consumer credit reporting company. Experian collects and aggregates information on over 1 billion people and businesses including 235 million individual U.S. consumers and more t ...

* Exxon Mobil Corporation * Ernst & Young (EY) * Ford Motor Company * Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy * Grant Thornton * Heitkamp & Thumann Group * Hogan Lovells * Intel * Johnson Controls *

K&L Gates K&L Gates LLP is an American multinational corporation law firm based in the United States, with international offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Its namesake firms are Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, a Pittsburgh-ba ...

LLP *

KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...

* Kreab * Lilly * Merck & Co., Inc. *

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

* NCR *

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...

* Pfizer * Philip Morris International *

PwC PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

Qualcomm Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, with other offices worldwide. Red Hat has become ass ...

* Saab Group * SAP *

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

* SKF *

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian state owned enterprise, state-owned multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger. It is primarily a petroleum company, petroleum company, operating in 36 countries with ad ...

* Telecom Italia * Telefónica * Texas Instruments * Umicore * Underwriters Laboratories * Verisign * Verizon * Wärtsilä Corporation

Controversy

According to consumer rights

and think tank '' Public Citizen'', :TABD makes countless smaller suggestions that are geared toward removing important worker, consumer and environmental laws and

regulations Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

which it views as "

barriers to trade Trade barriers are government-induced restrictions on international trade. According to the theory of comparative advantage, trade barriers are detrimental to the world economy and decrease overall economic efficiency. Most trade barriers work ...

," and which everyone else views as measures that save lives, keep our air and water clean, and protect endangered animals and plants.

External links

*
Speech
of

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

on the TABD
A page of the European Commission
on the TABD
TABD at citizen.orgTABD at Streit Council

References

{{reflist United States–European Union relations Organizations related to the European Union Lobbying in the United States Lobbying in the European Union Free trade agreements of the United States Working groups