EU for inclusion of financial rule in FTA deal with US

WASHINGTON, June 14 (Xinhua): A top European Union (EU) official on Friday continued to push for the inclusion of financial regulation in a free trade agreement with the United States, saying it's vital to ensure global financial stability.
"The EU and the US agree on the overall objectives of sound and resilient banks and financial markets. But we have and will keep different regulatory procedures and frameworks. We need to do more to make these regulatory systems work together," EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier said in a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C.
"It would be nothing short of a disaster if our agreements on broad principles are undermined by the detailed rules and their implementation being just too different. This is why we want to include regulatory cooperation on financial services in the TTIP," Barnier said about talks over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which aims to create the world's largest free trade area.
But there are concerns in Washington that to include financial regulation in the US-EU trade talks would water down the Dodd-Frank Act, the biggest overhaul of financial regulation enacted by US President Barack Obama in 2010, as the United States has stronger rules in financial services than the EU.