The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was meant to be the biggest and best trade pact ever.
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Paris threatened to stall further negotiations as long ago as April, but there are national elections due in both France and Germany in 2017, and before the summer, experts were saying that this year – ahead of the US presidential election – may be the best opportunity to strike a deal.
“There should be an absolute clear end so that we can restart them on good basis”, he said on RMC Radio, adding he would suggest that course to fellow ministers.
“The U.S.is seen as this unregulated, red in tooth and claw kind of place, and if we have to standardize regulation with the U.S., that will lead to an erosion of standards and protections within the EU”, said Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform.
German chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said that while Europe and the United States still disagree over certain parts of a free trade deal, the talks are not over yet.
Not all agree that the talks have failed. But he too said it would be hard to reach a deal before Obama left office at the end of the year.
The skepticism regarding TTIP was fully shared by German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who declared over the weekend that the talks were “de facto dead”.
“I don’t want to analyse the mind and the intentions of President Hollande”.
Matthias Fekl, France’s minister for foreign trade, tweeted on Tuesday morning that his government demanded a halt of negotiations on the deal, known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
“It’s a fundamental truth of economics that overall free trade is quite beneficial and protectionism is what hurts the poor most”, he said.
“They have been hard, of course, we knew from the beginning, but they have not failed”, she said.
“If both these deals go down in flames, which is quite possible, the U.S. position in the world is going to be much weaker”, he says.
According to supporters of the TTIP, the deal represents over US$100 billion worth of economic gains for both sides of the Atlantic.
French Trade Minister Matthias Fekl said on Tuesday (30 August) he would request a halt to the TTIP talks at an European Union trade ministers’ meeting next month.
Alden says the economic impact on the American public would probably be small if the TTIP negotiations do fail.
Supporters of the deal claim TTIP worth $100 bn in economic gains for both side, although critics suggest it is a deal created to empower multinationals against consumers, governments, and workers.
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However, while criticizing TTIP, Sigmar Gabriel stressed on his support to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) proposed between the European Union and Canada.
