The NSA bugging “scandal” obscures the real opponents of the floundering EU-US trade talks – the independent regulators

Proposals for a transatlantic trade deal between the U.S. and the European Union have waxed and waned for more than two decades, with this year’s talks running into difficulties following revelations of American monitoring of European communications. Simon J. Evenett argues that this row obscures the real enemies of the trade talks: independent regulators on both sides of the Atlantic want to water down proposals for greater regulatory alignment. He writes that with the world economy increasingly regulated on a fragmentary, national basis, the likely failure of the regulatory aspects of the trade talks will set back the cause of reciprocal trade liberalization for some time to come.