The French minister’s declaration comes two days after German vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said that TTIP talks had “de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it”.
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Trade talks between the European Union and the United States should be halted and a new set started, France’s trade minister said on Tuesday, adding his voice to calls from within Germany for an end to the negotiations.
On the record, US and European officials say they are continuing to move forward with talks and stress the importance of the TTIP to their economies.
Though the office of the U.S Trade Representative on Monday said efforts to seal a trade deal between the usa and the European Union were still “making steady progress”, the attempt to put an optimistic spin on the struggling negotiations was undermined once again on Tuesday as France’s financial minister called for the outright suspension of talks.
Foreign Trade Minister Matthias Fekl’s remarks followed comments from German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel that the negotiations had effectively failed. “This is not how allies should be negotiating”.
“They have been hard, of course, we knew from the beginning, but they have not failed”, she said.
Popular opposition to a free trade agreement with the United States is strong in Germany.
“The ball is rolling right now and the Commission is making steady progress. provided the conditions are right, the Commission stands ready to close this deal by the end of the year”, said Margaritis Schinas, the chief spokesperson of the European Commission. Gabriel is the chairman of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD), who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.
Schinas said that Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, has asserted that security, health, social, and data protection standards will not be sacrificed for the sake of trade.
“Die LINKE doesn’t see any advantages in TTIP for the majority of the people: All the promises concerning economic growth or more jobs do not base on any reliable facts”, Ernst said.
In Britain, the failure of TTIP “may strengthen the Brexiteers’ argument that the United Kingdom will be more nimble on its own, as it will not have to co-ordinate 27 European Union countries’ individual desires into one combined European Union effort”, says the Daily Telegraph.
With or without TTIP, Czech trade with the USA has already strengthened considerably over the past year or two to something like the level it should be with the world’s biggest economy. Backers say it will help small businesses opening up markets and making customs processes easier, while trade tariffs on products would be reduced.
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Thornton advised against misleading assumptions that trade deals like the TTIP are good for the economy in general. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has criticised a number of the US’s trade agreements.
