Comment du Jour

Transatlantic Trade Pact--Win-Win for USA and Europe

"Trade is the cheapest way to produce growth,” exclaimed European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso before an executive audience adding, that a planned Transatlantic trade pact between the USA and Europe Union would produce a “win-win solution in trade” for both sides of the Atlantic.

“Our partnership,” stated President Barroso, “has developed into the most prosperous and dynamic economic bond in the world ever, and it still is, accounting for nearly half of global GDP and almost one third of world trade.” Indeed, “For decades, this bond between the two most developed economic blocs in the world has been the driver for growth and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Transatlantic trade is already highly developed, Barroso stressed that trade between the both sides of the Atlantic reaches $2.7 billion daily! He added that $3.7 trillion are invested across the Atlantic by both American and European companies. Barroso highlighted that the European Union combined 27 economies remain the “the largest economy in the world.”

“That is the logic behind the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership on which negotiations should begin before the summer,” he advised.

Speaking at an event sponsored jointly by Bloomberg business and European American Chamber of Commerce, Barroso, a former Portuguese Prime Minister and European Commission President since 2004, praised the initial stages of a Transatlantic Trade partnership which would both simplify and expand commerce between the USA and EU.

He stated confidently that such a commercial pact would add 0.5 percent in GDP growth for both sides.

He conceded that given the global economy, “The EU was very hard hit by the crisis” and that “the return to growth will be gradual.”

On the positive side, the Barroso outlined that Europe is “the largest host of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the world.

For example German business investment in the USA surpassed $216 billion with over 3,500 German owned firms creating 600,000 jobs in the USA.  A prime example of this would be BMW’s $5 billion plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The facility produces Sports Activity Vehicles, 300,000 of which were made in 2012. The factory employs 7,000 workers. Equally American investments and brands have become commonplace in Europe.


Barroso implored, “I believe that the EU-US trade negotiations are a game changer and can be the start of a new era.” He added, “They will further intensify the economic relationship between the United States and European Union, two economic giants eager to be as successful in the future as they were in the past.”

For example, two-way trade between the USA and the European Union’s 27 member countries reached $646 billion in 2012, actually higher than American bilateral trade with China. French imports and exports reached $72 billion last year, our trade with the United Kingdom stood at $110 billion, and the two-way trade with Germany climbed to $157 billion.

“We believe free trade has a future,” President Barroso stressed, “and we are willing to invest in it.” Hopefully there will be enough common ground and common sense in Washington to pursue this “win-win” opportunity for both sides of the Atlantic.

Comment du Jour

53rd New York Antiquarian Book Fair!!

Spring in New York means it's time for the Antiquarian Book Fair. As usual the event proved as splendid as it was engaging, for both historians and sauvants of rare books, prints and maps from around the world.

Dealers from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom were among the biggest players as were so very many American rare book dealers.

The opening photo above came from the stunning booth of Les Trois Islets, a rare book dealer from France.   The picture below shows a fabulous tome, The Voyages and Adventures of Fernand Mendes Pinto, an Engish edition from London 1653. Earler Portuguese editions, not to mention Latin editions  of this volume, are equally sought after. The dealer is Frederik Muller Rare Books of the Netherlands.

And if Mendes Pinto is not enough, Muller has quite many Jesuit maps and books relating to the Age of Discovery.  For example, St. Francis Xavier, 52 missionary letters in Latin and published in Antwerp in 1657.

If the Law is your interest, there's the famous French Ordonnance de Louis XIV,
which lists the Colbert Reforms.   The work dating from Paris in 1667, was the first in a long series of legislation by Jean-Baptiste Colbert whose grand reform programme "would provide a model for the enlightened despots of the next century."  The book is being sold by Leo Cadogan of London, himself a sauvant of fine books and literature of ages past.  

And yes, comparatively speaking, there are more modern selections...

                                And birds, butterflies and browsers....


                                  

Comment du Jour

                                       In a Parsian Department Store circ 1902
                                                         by Alexandre Lunois

"Electric Paris"

Illuminating the City of Light

Paris is known as the "City of Light." The French capital is admired for its art, architecture, cuisine, fashion and the finer points of haute culture, but how was the city illuminated after dark?

The Clark Museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts answers the obvious but often overlooked question. City of Light?  The Clark, uses illustrations, lithos, paintings and images of this belle epoch in an interesting, if too small, glimpse into "Electric Paris."

                                             A bateau with electric lights!

The exhibit "Electric Paris" offers an novel glimpse into presentation of a subject from a very different angle--basically how technology changed a place but moreover how the technology looks in an otherwise familiar setting. 

From the 1840's boulevards and many streets were lit by gas lamps--during the Second Empire 1852 and 1870 during the splendid and luminary reign of Napoleon III, the grand boulevards and buildings were lit by gas light. By the end of the 1870's electric lights shined brightly!  Paris was one of the first cities to use widespread electric lighting. And how beautifully it bathed the new Eiffel Tower!

By the turn of the century in 1899, the City was transformed into the City of Light and its monuments, passions and poular culture were bathed in this new "technology."
The exhibit shows how lighting helped define Paris as a modern metropolis.

The Sterling and Francine Clarke Art Institute is located in Williamstown in the Berkshires.  It's just down the road from Williams College. The exhibit has been extended until the 21st April.

www.clarkart.edu  

                                                 

                                      Childe Hassam, Bois de Boulogne (1888)



s