The European Union’s executive said on Monday it had a unanimous mandate from the bloc’s 28 members to finalise negotiations on a free trade deal with the United States, a day after Germany’s economy minister said the talks had “de facto failed”. “.There should be an absolute clear end so that we can restart them on good basis”.
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Looming elections in Germany and France next year as well as the United States presidential elections later this year always looked like they could derail this trade deal until a new set of politicians, or the same with new mandates, might be around to give TTIP or a modified form of it a new lease of life. The partnership “will be sealed”.
Activists who have opposed TTIP since negotiations began in 2013 say the deal would only benefit multinationals and harm consumers.
“With the agreement, we’ve created planning security for companies”, said Gabriel, the vice chancellor and leader of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
Matthias Fekl said “there is no more political support in France for these negotiations”, adding that “France calls for an end to these negotiations”, according to AFP.
According to the European Commission, the TTIP would boost the EU’s economy by 120 billion euros, the United States economy by 90 billion euros and the rest of the world by 100 billion euros.
“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. “The negotiations have bogged down, the positions have not been respected, the imbalance is obvious”.
“Everything is moving. In this situation it’s just not going to happen”, said Peter van Ham, senior research fellow at Dutch think tank Clingendael and author of a paper on Tuesday called “TTIP is dead, long live transatlantic trade”.
Chief EU negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero played down Gabriel’s talk of failure.
However, a spokesperson for the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, has said that the European Commission is making steady progress in the ongoing TTIP negotiations.
That prospect looks less likely now, and Britain’s June vote to leave the European Union has further clouded the picture, even though the Commission has a mandate to finalise TTIP talks on behalf of all European Union 28 members.
Trade analysts say that Washington may be preparing for the end of trade talks, which typically conclude with each side holding the other responsible for failure.
The deal is aimed at boosting trade and investment between the U.S. and Europe, Alden says.
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On the U.S side, further difficulties arise on horizon as Donald Trump seems firmly opposed to global trade deals and Hillary Clinton has not shown much enthusiasm on the TTIP either.
