France and Germany cast TTIP doubts

Europe’s two superpowers have cast doubt over the viability of a trade deal between the EU and the US reaching fruition. Last weekend, Germany’s vice chancellor and economy minister Sigmar Gabriel cast doubt on the future of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) due to a lack of interest on both sides.

Speaking to German broadcaster ZDF, Gabriel said: “In my opinion, the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it.”

Since then, France’s trade minister Matthias Fekl has said his country would formally withdraw its support for the proposed trade deal between the EU and the US.

“What France is asking for is a pure, simple and definitive end to these negotiations,” Fekl told RMC radio on Tuesday. He said Paris would formally register its position at the next meeting of EU trade ministers in Bratislava on 22 September.

While he acknowledged that the European Commission could technically continue the talks with the US, Fekl said: “There is no longer any French political support for these negotiations.”

The EU and the US have so far concluded 14 rounds of talks on TTIP and have not yet concluded even one chapter of negotiations.

On Monday, the European Commission vowed to keep negotiating with the US with a view to clinching a trade deal by the end of this year, on the basis that it had received the continued backing of member states’ leaders at their latest summit in June.

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has welcomed the uncertain future for the trade deal. “It is clear now that TTIP is politically dead, at least for the time being. It was defeated by popular will, and the refusal of citizens across Europe to accept lower standards of rights for workers and consumers, lower standards of food safety and the drastic implications for farmers.”