"In terms of mobility and services trade, the US is clearly ahead of Europe,” says Craig Parsons in the first episode of Arena Europa.
He is professor at the University of Oregon and senior researcher at ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo. There, he leads the research project The Politics of European and American Single-Market Governance (SINGLEMARKETS), which compares the American and the European internal markets.
Parsons explains that the US has more market integration “on the ground”; there is more trade and movement of people between American states than between European countries.
“But when you are talking about the single market, you also mean it is a single space where you can do business or seek a job under a single set of rules. And the more a market is single, the more that is true.”
Barriers to trade and mobility
“The surprising thing is that although the US remains well ahead of Europe in market integration ‘on the ground’, the EU is actually well ahead of the US in the singleness of its rules,” says Parsons.
Whereas American workers who want to practise in another state meet barriers, in Europe these barriers are largely removed. For example, Parsons explains that in the EU, a doctor, an architect, a lawyer, or a plumber from one European country can pursue jobs in another European country. American workers, on the other hand, may need to pay a licensing fee to work in another state.
“In the US, states have near-complete authority to accept professional qualifications or licenses,” says Parsons.
“There are some studies that show that it even affects the mobility of Americans across states, that they are deterred to some degree by the cost of these professional licenses.”
Nobody’s job
"Why has it become like this?," asks host of Arena Europa and Director at ARENA Centre for European Studies, Pernille Rieker.
“The Europeans made it somebody’s job to find and identify barriers,” says Parsons.
The European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union are central actors in the EU system anyone who faces barriers to trade and mobility can turn to, he explains.
“In the United States, it is nobody's job to pay attention to interstate barriers.”
In the SINGLEMARKETS project, researchers have interviewed American and European businesses about the barriers they face. Many American businesses explain that they do face barriers to trade, but they ask “who would I talk to about that?”.
Political culture and ideology
According to Parsons, part of the reason the US is less regulated in this area than the EU, is because of ideology and political culture.
“Americans don’t want it to be somebody’s job. And Europeans, to a surprising degree, accept that this is the EU's job and are OK that it pursues that job,” says Parsons.
“The simple way of saying it is that Americans are more sceptical and opposed to the power of the federal government than Europeans are sceptical and opposed to the power of the EU."
Listen to the episode to learn more about how Donald Trump’s tariffs on Europe will affect both the US and Europe, as well as about Norway’s relationship with the EU.
New podcast series
Arena Europa is a new podcast series by ARENA Centre for European Studies. Find the first, and all coming episodes here.
"With Europa Arena, we wish to make research-based knowledge about Europe, the EU, and the European Economic Area more accessible,” says podcast host and Director at ARENA Centre for European Studies, Pernille Rieker.
"ARENA has long had a strong focus on disseminating research, and with the podcast Europa Arena, we are taking this a step further. The goal is to create a platform for reflection and knowledge exchange," she continues.
Arena Europa will include episodes in both Norwegian and English, with guests from ARENA, other research environments, and experts from both domestic and international settings.
The podcast series will cover everything from current topics to more long-term trends in European politics, always with a research-based perspective, Rieker explains.
"Europe is facing significant challenges – democratic, economic, and security-related. With this podcast, we aim to contribute to a more informed debate by highlighting research and expertise that can provide a deeper understanding of what is at stake," says Rieker.