It was secured that the European Union (EU) and the United States would launch negotiations for transatlantic free trade agreement after President Barack Obama announced his commitment in his annual State of the Union Address and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warmly echoed: "I look forward to working closely with him to achieve this."

Suffering from a protracted subprime crisis, the U.S. and EU are somewhat hindering the economic globalization. The launch of free trade talks between the world’s two largest economies, therefore, is definitely good news for maintaining the free trade mechanism. Moreover, "trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs," noted Obama.

However, considering that the United States and EU may try to outflank the Doha Round through regional economic integration, and perhaps try to enforce some unreasonable ideas, it is still too early to predict how negotiations between the two will influence global trade rules. What's more, EU is sometimes over-democratic as well as over-cautious to make or execute a decision, so it is hard to tell whether the talks would be fruitful.

The Doha Round of talks is supposed to correct those World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that are biased against developing countries. After almost a decade, however, it has gone nowhere.

Besides talks on the U.S.-EU accord, Obama also reaffirmed his commitment to talks with ten countries inside the Asia-Pacific region on a free trade pact called the "Trans-Pacific Partnership" in his annual State of the Union Address. It is obvious that the U. S. aims to rebuild the Doha Round and get the upper hand in regional trade negotiations. This scenario might leave a bitter taste in Asia's mouth though.

Since the 1990s, the imbalanced distribution of interests and burdens has been one of the most severe problems caused by economic globalization. Developing countries get fewer benefits, but are required to shoulder more responsibilities for readjustment. Supported by the U. S. and EU, the trade rules set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and WTO have contributed to such imbalance. It is for this abovementioned reason we should be alert to the possibly negative impacts of the U.S.-EU free trade talks.

We hope the United States and EU will bear in mind that the fruits of development shall be shared fairly. If they just turn a deaf ear to developing countries' reasonable desire for development, the trend of globalization might be reversed, which would end in a lose-lose situation.

The author is a researcher at the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Institute of the Ministry of Commerce.

The article was first published in Chinese and translated by Fan Junmei.

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