European Consuls: Transatlantic Free Trade Under Threat 

True to diplomatic form, they wouldn’t wade into the weeds on politics, but a group of European consuls general speaking Monday in Atlanta did express shared concern over one trend in the U.S.: a growing antipathy toward free trade. 

While the approaching U.S. presidential election gives voters a stark choice on both style and substance, the country known for leading the “free world” seems to have reached a political consensus favoring domestic resiliency over open markets.

That contrasts with European countries that have traditionally seen openness as the lifeblood of their economies, the diplomats said during the annual Springboard to Europe outbound investment event. 

Commenting on the many political transitions under way in Europe and beyond, Consul General Rachel Galloway of the United Kingdom, said the sweep by the Labour Party in the British parliament hasn’t changed the country’s trajectory on trade. 

“Despite the differences between our political parties, we have a consensus around the idea that we want to see free trade and open markets, and we’re going to continue to work to remove those barriers,” Ms. Galloway told an audience convened at the Metro Atlanta Chamber by law firm Arnall Golden Gregory and accounting firm Frazier and Deeter, along with their European counterparts and co-organizers at EPIC Insurance.  See the full schedule and panelist slate

A bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. was a key objective of post-Brexit Britain, but that has been put on the back burner during the Biden administration. The U.K. has instead begun signing state-level memoranda of understanding, including, among others, an agreement with North Carolina on green energy. 

In Georgia, the consulate helped broker mutual recognition of architecture credentials that will allow Georgia-based architects to work in the U.K. without additional licensing, and vice versa. A similar provision for engineers is in the works. 

“So we are continuing to find ways to remove trade barriers, but I think we should be concerned about the direction of travel,” Ms. Galloway said. 

German Consul General Melanie Moltmann took a broader perspective, noting that trade policy is a function of the European Union among states in the bloc. Recent trade talks with the U.S. on trade have been slow, but a series of technology dialogues have yielded some productive results on AI and more, she said. 

She noted that while Germany has seen elections in three of its 16 federal states, with parliamentary elections due next September, she doesn’t see politics affecting Germany’s argument for recruiting investors.

Facing the prospect of a second year in recession, Europe’s largest economy is taking a new tack: cutting some red tape to spur growth. 

“This is the goal that the government has, and that has borne already some fruits. I think we are in a quite good direction for that, so free trade is something that’s very important for us as well,” Ms. Moltmann said. 

Others took on the question of European stability head-on. 

While a coalition headed by the right-wing Party for Freedom and its leader Geert Wilders is now in power in the Netherlands, Consul General Jaap Veerman said the country remains committed to openness and support of companies using the country as a base to break into Europe. 

“There is political stability, there is continuity, together with our partners in Europe. We believe in free trade,” Mr. Veerman added.

On the security front, he pointed out that former Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who led the Dutch government for 14 years, is now the secretary general of NATO.

“I think Europe is united — we will support Ukraine. There is no other way. And of course, we hope, after the elections here in the U.S., that this transatlantic partnership will maintain as strong as it is now.”

That, of course, is an open question, as the Republican ticket headed by former President Donald Trump, a NATO skeptic who badgered European allies into meeting their defense funding commitments during his first term, continues to call into question U.S. funding of the war effort in Ukraine. 

Newly arrived Belgian Consul General Katherine Raeymaekers said the U.S. and Europe have a long history of pulling together during times of crisis, most clearly during World War II and its aftermath. 

That same spirit of rebuilding should prevail if and when the Ukraine war ends, she said. In the meantime, the strength of transatlantic partnership will lead to new opportunities amid a realignment on global security. 

“We have an open economy. Ninety-five percent of our trade of services and goods is international,” she said of Belgium. “We share the same concerns: inflation, China, diversification of resources, and we hear about all this near-shoring and friend-shoring. Europe and the U.S. have always been friends, so there is definitely (room) to strengthen this friend-shoring between our continents.”

Irish Consul General Frank Groome, who also arrived recently in Atlanta, addressed the framing of the panel, “Europe in Transition,” perhaps a more diplomatic tone than last year’s event, which asked whether Europe was “broken.” 

Mr. Groome, who spent four years in the Netherlands before coming to Atlanta, was an apologist for European resiliency, noting that it had come through headwinds like Brexit, COVID-19 and a Russian war that required a wholesale reinvention of the continent’s energy matrix. 

“Europe’s always a transition, right? There’s an internal dynamic of change that happens, and it develops through new rules, or there’s a response to external environments and through crises,” he said. “And I must say, I have very much a glass-half-full kind of perspective on this.” 

The $8.7 trillion transatlantic economy, Mr. Groome said, continues to be the “engine of the world,” humming with “slow, steady growth” despite unprecedented challenges including the rise of industrial policy, the challenge of China and issues identified with countries’ global competitiveness.  

“The springboard analogy, I think, is quite a good one, in that it’s a board that bends but doesn’t break, and the economy is very much like that.”