About TACD

Background

The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue is a forum of US and EU consumer organisations which develops and agrees joint consumer policy recommendations to the US government and European Union to promote the consumer interest in EU and US policy making.

It is in the context of the New Transatlantic Agenda (launched in 1995) and in particular of the New Economic Partnership (launched in 1998), that the TACD, along with several other transatlantic dialogues, was born. In launching the NTA and the TEP, the governments of the EU and US had for the first time pledged their support to an increased involvement of civil society in transatlantic policy-making.

The TACD was launched in September 1998, at the end of the inaugural meeting which took place in Washington and gathered more than 60 consumer representatives from the US and the EU.

Aims

To provide a formal mechanism for EU and US consumer representatives to input to EU and US political negotiations and agreements as well as explore ways of strengthening the EU and US consumer view at the international level.

Structure

The TACD consists of:

TACD Participants

So far, a total of 45 EU and 20 US consumer organisations have joined the TACD and participate mainly through membership of the working groups. Participation in TACD is open to all EU or US consumer organisations which work on a national and/or international level, and are independent of business and political interest. Consumer organisations from outside EU and US, or groups that do not meet the definition of consumer organisations, can be invited to the working groups as 'observer members' - they may input viewpoints but may not stop consensus policy decisions.

Activities

The TACD endeavours to feed into the TEP process by looking closely at the agenda of the various TEP committees and responding on the issues which concern consumers directly. Other policy-making processes, such as those at the OECD or WTO, are also being closely followed. The TACD regularly issues statements and recommendations on important food, e-commerce, intellectual property and trade issues such as GM foods, growth hormones, the precautionary principle, consumer protection in e-commerce, data privacy protection, fair trade and eco-labelling, access to medicines, and so on.