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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But the European Commission on Monday rejected the German claims and insisted the talks remained on track.
“The Americans give nothing or just crumbs. that are not how negotiations are done between allies”, he said. Steffen Seibert told reporters it is “right to continue negotiating”, noting that often a breakthrough is only achieved “in the final round”.
The U.S. and the European Union have been negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) for three years and both had aimed to agree a deal this year.
“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. In addition to the UK’s decision to call it quits on European Union membership in June and the United States presidential elections in November, national elections are also due to take place in both France and Germany next year.
Hollande said in a speech Tuesday that “the best thing is for us to lucidly note this, instead of extending a discussion that can not be completed on this basis”.
Talks on a free trade deal being negotiated by the United States and the European Union are making progress, a spokesman for the USA trade chief told Der Spiegel, contradicting the German economy minister, who said the discussions had failed. He cautioned, though, that the EU’s executive is not willing to sacrifice Europeans’ “safety, health, social and data protection standards or our cultural diversity” to reach an agreement with the United States.
French Trade Minister Matthias Fekl said on Tuesday that this round of talks should be ended and a new set started.
“We did not feel that there was a lack of support. we received the mandate to conclude these negotiations”.
France has said it rejects the plan as it now stands because it is too friendly to US business.
In May President Hollande said he would “never accept” the deal in its current guise.
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Prospects for the proposed EU-US trade deal have been cast into further doubt after French president Francois Hollande said an agreement would not be forged before Barack Obama leaves office in January, and a trade minister called for an end to talks.
