Reuters — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday she would do everything she could to complete this year a sweeping free trade deal (TTIP) that is being negotiated between the European Union and the United States.
Merkel said that during talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday she had “made clear that we will do everything possible to negotiate the transatlantic agreement this year”.
Supporters say the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would deliver more than $100 billion (69 billion pounds) of economic gains on both sides of the Atlantic.
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On Tuesday, François Hollande said he would reject the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership “at this stage” because France was opposed to unregulated free trade.
Earlier, France’s lead trade negotiator had warned that a halt in TTIP talks “is the most probable option”. Matthias Fekl, the minister responsible for representing France in TTIP talks, blamed Washington for the impasse. He said Europe had offered a lot but had received little in return. He added: “There cannot be an agreement without France and much less against France.”
All 28 EU member states and the European parliament will have to ratify TTIPbefore it comes into force. But that day seems further away than ever, with talks bogged down after 13 rounds of negotiations spread over nearly three years.
The European commission, which leads negotiations on behalf of the EU, dismissed concerns and “alarmist headlines” following the leak of documents by Greenpeace on Tuesday, which gave the first full insight into the negotiations, as “a storm in a teacup”.
