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.
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France has increased the pressure on the proposed EU-US free trade deal, calling for negotiations to be called off.
Matthias Fekl, the French Minister for Foreign Trade, tweeted that his government demanded negotiations on the TTIP should cease.
Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who’s also vice chancellor and leads the center-left junior party in Merkel’s coalition, has said that trade negotiations with the U.S.
Chief EU negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero played down Gabriel’s talk of failure. “It’s going to require the resolution of some pretty thorny negotiations, but the president and his team are committed to doing that”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington. But with national elections due in both France and Germany in 2017, experts were saying before the summer that this year – before the end of U.S. President Barack Obama’s mandate in January – may be the best opportunity to strike a deal.
The engineering federation VDMA has also urged Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel to implement the agreement with the United States. But he too said it would be hard to reach a deal before Obama left office at the end of the year.
European Union trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem however said that she did not agree that the negotiations had failed.
Italy’s trade and industry minister meanwhile said it was essential for Italian exporters that the negotiations bore fruit.
She said the aim was still to conclude a deal under the Obama presidency, adding: “And if that is not possible it makes sense to make as much progress as possible”.
Fekl said there is an imbalance in the negotiations in favour of the USA side. But the public mood is turning increasingly negative, with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump making attacks on worldwide trade deals a cornerstone of his campaign, saying they have cost U.S.jobs.
This news story is related to Print/146465-France-seeks-halt-to-talks-on-EU-US-trade-deal/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne.
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The comments put the EU’s two biggest economies at odds with both the official line from the European Commission, the bloc’s executive, and the U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
