However Gabriel said the talks had little hope of reaching fruition either before or after the United States election.
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“We’re still not out of the woods in terms of dealing the EU’s legacy of toxic trade deals”. “The U.S. has balked at accepting minimum European Union standards in the talks and unless that stance changes, I can’t see that it’s possible to seal the accord”, he said.
In the United States, Obama has promoted the accord, saying it would fuel growth.
The long running trade deal discussions between the USA and the European Union have broken down according to diplomats.
His opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, has also stepped back from her previous support for free trade when she was U.S. Secretary of State, and has questioned whether trade deals hold down U.S. wages.
However, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier – who, like Gabriel, is a member of the Social Democrats in coalition with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union – said an agreement was still far off.
“So numerous controversial elements of TTIP would effectively come in through the back door with CETA, and people across Europe are already mobilising in large numbers to stop this attempted corporate coup just like they have done with TTIP”.
“Though the Brexit vote was shaped by concerns about the free movement of labour, rather than of goods and services, the appetite for new trade deals was already weak”.
Many critics pointed to possible large-scale job losses, a lowering of standards for food and agricultural produce, an erosion of workers’ rights and increased power for large multi-national corporations.
A wave of protests has taken place across Europe since the beginning of the talks in 2013.
France’s trade chief says he wants to ask the European Union to end talks with the US on forging a sweeping trade deal that his socialist government sees as too friendly to USA business.
U.S Trade Representative Michael Froman told German magazine Der Spiegel the negotiations “are in fact making steady progress”.
“Practically there’s no real change”.
“It would be better for all sides to agree”, he said.
Meanwhile, Italian Trade and Industry Minister Carlo Calenda said it was essential for Italian exporters that the negotiations bore fruit.
A spokesperson for the European Commission insisted the “ball is still rolling” on the deal on Monday. We have to defend our interests, but we also have to negotiate and conclude this agreement.
Matthias Fekl said that his government will seek to bring talks to a halt. Behind the scenes, top diplomats have told AFP talks may be suspended until after the USA presidential election in November as well as elections in France and Germany next year.
Speaking more cautiously, French president Francois Hollande said there would be no deal before the end of United States president Barrack Obama’s term.
“Very soon you end in a blame game”, said Lee-Makiyama.
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Budowsky, for his part, told Press TV that trade-related negotiations like the TTIP are skewed in favor of big businesses and against working people, laborers and consumers. “They just go into a stock-taking phase”.
