Merkel is expected to discuss the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with Obama when he visits a trade show in Hanover on Sunday and Monday.
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In November past year, more than 100,000 people marched through the streets of Berlin to protest the proposed pact.
If he’s successful in those pursuits, it’s because the two leaders have formed something rare for Obama: a genuine worldwide friendship that both have leveraged to their own advantages.
Officials in Washington and Europe are trying to clinch key parts of the TTIP deal before the end of the year. Merkel recently helped European countries reach a deal with Turkey to ease the flow, but she and the other leaders are now under pressure to revisit it.
“Support for trade agreements is fading in a country that views itself as the global export champion”, said Aart De Geus, the foundation’s chairman and chief executive.
On a visit to London on Saturday, Obama tried to address sceptics’ fears head-on, admitting that previous trade agreements had “served the interests of large corporations and not necessarily of workers in the countries that participate in them”.
Obama flies to Germany Sunday after a U.K. visit during which he angered supporters of an European Union exit by making it clear the United States wants Britain to stay in. Her approach to the crisis, which dented her popularity at home, “has been courageous”, he said.
“She dislikes the atmospherics surrounding the Obama phenomenon.it’s contrary to her whole idea of politics and how to conduct oneself in general”, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was told in an email from her confidante Sidney Blumenthal.
“Europe and the United States is already one of the most robust trading relationships in the world”, Obama said at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the German city of Hannover, broadcast by the TRT World news channel.
President Barack Obama says the United States isn’t taking seriously North Korea’s latest statements about being ready to halt its nuclear tests if the USA would suspend its annual military exercises with South Korea. In Germany this week, Obama hopes to boost Merkel after her decision to open Germany for an inflow of refugees proved deeply unpopular among Germans. Some 300 US companies are among the expected participants.
Merkel is a chemist by training, distinguishing her from the parade of career politicians that Obama regularly faces in Europe and elsewhere.
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Even as Obama has tried to focus USA foreign policy more on Asia and China’s rising power, administration aides say they have watched with concern as European unity has come under increased strain at a time of increased Russian aggression, slow economic growth, a virulent terrorism threat, and a huge influx of migrants from the Middle East and beyond.
