U.K.'s Osborne Calls For U.S. Trade Agreement, EU Single Market

(RTTNews) - U.K. Chancellor George Osborne said the EU-U.S. free trade agreement should be completed urgently and develop innovative ideas to complete the EU Single Market.

The EU-US free trade agreement would be the world's biggest ever trade deal - together it would account for half of global output, he said in a speech to the Open Europe think tank in London.

It will boost the European economy by EUR 120 billion a year - that is over EUR 500 for every family in the EU. It would bring GBP 10 billion a year to the UK alone.

Osborne said the Mario Monti presented a report on Single Market nearly four years ago. On the service sector alone, it estimated up to 1.5 percent boost to GDP.

"But four years on, what has come of it? Precious little," he added.

Further, Osborne said the European Treaties are not "fit for purpose." "They did not anticipate a European Union where some countries would pursue dramatically deeper integration than others."