<story><title>No free trade agreement if charges of espionage are true, warns EU Commissioner</title><url>http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&amp;tl=en&amp;js=n&amp;prev=_t&amp;hl=da&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dr.dk%2FNyheder%2FUdland%2F2013%2F06%2F30%2F0630185422.htm&amp;act=url</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wazoox</author><text>Frankly, I can&amp;#x27;t see a single good reason for this trade agreement, and a lot of good reasons against, starting with that I (and all other Europeans) don&amp;#x27;t want GM food, hormone beef and chlorinated chicken in my plate any day soon.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JumpCrisscross</author><text>Trade openness is one of the strongest predictor of peace [1] (also see: &lt;i&gt;Better Angels of our Nature&lt;/i&gt; [2]).&lt;p&gt;Free trade would also be an economic boon to Europe and the U.S. A study by the Bertelsmann Foundation together with the Munich-based Center for Economic Studies found that &amp;quot;if the United States and the European Union are able to come together on a far-reaching free trade agreement, Germany would be one of the greatest beneficiaries. Fully 181,000 new jobs could be expected and per-capita income would spike by 4.68 percent.&amp;quot;   GDP&amp;#x2F;capita could rise &amp;quot;by 13.4 percent in the US and by 9.7 percent in the UK. More than a million new jobs would result in America. That number would be 400,000 in Britain.&amp;quot; [3]&lt;p&gt;The benefits of free trade are one of the points economists have found consensus on.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.yale.edu/leitner/resources/docs/HORJune09.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.yale.edu&amp;#x2F;leitner&amp;#x2F;resources&amp;#x2F;docs&amp;#x2F;HORJune09.pdf&lt;/a&gt; &amp;quot;Trade Does Promote Peace: 
New Simultaneous Estimates of the Reciprocal Effects of Trade and Conflict&amp;quot; (Hegre, O&amp;#x27;Neal, &amp;amp; Russett, 2009)&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/0143122010/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;qid=1372634338&amp;amp;sr=8-1&amp;amp;keywords=better+angels+of+our+nature&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.amazon.com&amp;#x2F;The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature&amp;#x2F;dp&amp;#x2F;014312...&lt;/a&gt; &lt;i&gt;The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined&lt;/i&gt; by Steven Pinker&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/study-on-trans-atlantic-trade-sees-huge-benefits-for-germany-a-906407.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.spiegel.de&amp;#x2F;international&amp;#x2F;business&amp;#x2F;study-on-trans-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>No free trade agreement if charges of espionage are true, warns EU Commissioner</title><url>http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&amp;tl=en&amp;js=n&amp;prev=_t&amp;hl=da&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dr.dk%2FNyheder%2FUdland%2F2013%2F06%2F30%2F0630185422.htm&amp;act=url</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wazoox</author><text>Frankly, I can&amp;#x27;t see a single good reason for this trade agreement, and a lot of good reasons against, starting with that I (and all other Europeans) don&amp;#x27;t want GM food, hormone beef and chlorinated chicken in my plate any day soon.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>oellegaard</author><text>AFAIK we have laws against this kind of food in EU, but the free trade agreement will give us e.g. Apple, Microsoft, Dell and other products without having to pay a high fee every time it goes through customs. Same goes for European products being sold in the US. It is expected to lead to BNP growth of around 1% in the EU region.</text></comment>