Live From Brussels

While in Brussels as a guest of EU Ambassador C. Boyden Gray it was fascinating to get a different perspective of the critical issues important to the Europeans. Other than Iraq, Doha is critical for passage of the U.S. Congress before July to ease trade barriers on third world regions such as Brazil, South America, India, and Africa to name a few. It is necessary that the Europeans get rid of their protectionist policies and that the U.S. eases its agriculture subsidies to assist these desperate countries.

Many are aware that Brussels is the political capital of Europe and the Europeans would like to join the United States in a more formal and official arrangement to harmonize our regulations and reduce the burden on American and European consumers and businesses.

Another developing issue that is not getting much attention in the U.S. press is as Americans want to become less dependent on Middle Eastern oil, Europeans must become more independent from Russian gas. Seventy percent of Europe’s natural gas flows from Russia. Europeans are still reeling from a taste of what it was like a year ago when the Russians literally shut off the gas supply to these European nations. It sent shock waves and a chilly reminder of how beholden they were to the Russians.

These are the things that we as Americans should pay close attention to as the Euro continues to gain strength and dominance over the almighty dollar.

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