“At the end of September, at the meeting of foreign trade ministers in Bratislava, I will ask, in the name of France, for the TTIP negotiations to be stopped”, Fekl said.
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“The Americans give nothing or just crumbs…”
Though Gabriel hails from Germany’s left-leaning Social Democrat Party, the TTIP continues to receive backing from conservative members of parliament as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel, who reaffirmed Monday her support for the continuation of talks.
“The nature of trade negotiations is that nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to, so it is not at all surprising that TTIP chapters have not been formally closed”, McAlvanah said.
“France calls for an end to these negotiations”, Mr Fekl declared on RMC radio.
On Wednesday, Austrian Vice-Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner said TTIP talks should be halted, echoing similar suggestion by French Trade Minister Matthias Fekl, who on Tuesday promised to request a halt to TTIP talks at next month’s European Union trade ministers’ meeting in Bratislava.
“Provided the conditions are right, the Commission stands right to close this deal by the end of the year”, he said.
In Washington, Matt McAlvanah, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Public Affairs, insisted that “negotiations are in fact making steady progress”.
“We need to ensure that any deal that is negotiated is in the best interests of the people of Ireland, and for Europe as a whole”.
Matthias Fekl said that his government will seek to bring talks to a halt.
“In my opinion the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it”, Gabriel, who is also Germany’s Vice Chancellor, told German broadcaster ZDF.
The TTIP aims to create a free trade zone covering 850 million people with supporters claiming that it will boost the EU’s economy by US$130 billion and the USA economy by US$100 billion. Besides, as the negotiations progressed, trust in the European Union has somewhat eroded, and, as a recent study from the Austrian Institute of Economic Research showed, it is directly correlated with support for the TTIP. Italy’s Economic Development Minister Carlo Calenda said in an interview with Corriere della Sera that talks are going ahead but will require many more months. This news story is related to Print/146465-France-seeks-halt-to-talks-on-EU-US-trade-deal/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne. The TTIP draft has been kept under wraps – which is not unusual for big trade agreements. CETA, the free trade deal between Canada and the EU has already been ratified, and if the European Parliament passes it, it will come into effect before the United Kingdom parliament has had any chance to vote on it.
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In the U.S., both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have hardened their position on free trade deals, promising to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a similar deal to cut barriers to trade with east Asian nations.
