ABSTRACT
President, Clinton brought about a profound change, putting economics high on his domestic and foreign policy agenda. But this profound change in respect to giving economics a much higher priority could also be observed in many other countries and in world politics. Transatlantic relations have always been difficult. From the beginning in 1949 until today, there have been profound differences in terms of interests, power and style. The candidate Bill Clinton promised the people that he would focus on solving domestic economic problems. But the elected President Clinton had to focus on foreign policy issues and especially in the first two years invested a lot of "political capital" in successfully concluding international trade negotiations. Despite the fact that the United States and the European Union are their most important economic partners, and despite an impressive record in economic integration, there are currently some potentially serious trade disputes between the two transatlantic partners.
