Two key French political figures have cast doubt on trade talks between the European Union and the USA, shortly after a German minister voiced the same concerns.
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French trade minister Matthias Fekl has indicated that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal is dead in the water.
“France calls for an end to these negotiations”, Fekl told RMC radio.
Speaking at the weekend, Gabriel claimed disagreements between the European Union and the U.S. have killed off the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which would have been the largest bilateral free trade agreement ever.
French President Francois Hollande says that talks on a landmark trade deal between the US and European Union are bogged down, unbalanced and can not be completed this year. “We need a clear and definitive stop to these negotiations to start again on good bases”.
The White House said President Barack Obama was sending his top trade official, Michael Froman, to Europe in September to renew talks aimed at creating the world’s largest free-trade zone.
The French position backs recent statements by Germany’s Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who said that Obama’s free trade agreement with the European Union “is going nowhere”, stressing that talks between Brussels and Washington “have de facto failed”.
Germany’s Vice Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, told ZDF on Sunday that the three years and 16-rounds negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have failed. But he too said it would be hard to reach a deal before Obama left office at the end of the year.
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.
However, Gabriel, who leads Germany’s centre-left Social Democratic party and is vice-chancellor in Merkel’s coalition government, said: “We mustn’t submit to the American proposals”.
In response to Gabriel’s comments, a spokesman for the EU Commission said Monday that the bloc’s executive was determined to continue negotiations. We have to defend our interests, but we also have to negotiate and conclude this agreement.
The EU commissioner in charge of the negotiations said talks have not broken down and the aim is still a deal by the time Obama leaves office.
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“The negotiations are bogged down, positions have not been respected, it’s clearly unbalanced”, said Hollande during a recent speech to French Ambassadors.
