Over the weekend according to the Associated Press, German vice chancellor and economic minister Sigmar Gabriel said he believes that free-trade talks between the United States and the European Union have “de facto failed.”
Both Washington and Brussels have pushed for a deal by the end of the year, despite strong misgivings among some EU member states over the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. . . .
“In my opinion, the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it,” Gabriel said during a question-and-answer session with citizens in Berlin.
He noted that in 14 rounds of talks, the two sides haven’t agreed on a single common item out of 27 chapters being discussed.
While Gabriel is not directly involved in the talks, his position as the economic minister of the EU’s largest and most important economy presumably gives him the inside scoop on the Trans-Atlantic free-trade agreement’s prospects.
Now, the French trade minister has gone public with his skepticism. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Matthias Fekl said he would use the occasion of a meeting of trade ministers in late September to ask the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to end negotiations [with the U.S.] over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. . . .
“France no longer politically supports these negotiations,” Mr. Fekl said Tuesday on French radio. “The Americans are giving us nothing,” he added. “This is not how allies should be negotiating.”
If the Germans and the French think the deal is dead; the deal is almost certainly dead.
With TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade pact, also on the rocks in Congress (and with both major-party presidential candidates having come out against it), it seems the U.S. will fail to secure lasting free-trade deals with many of the world’s most important economies. Time will tell if sluggish economic growth and populist politics in the developed world are leading a trend toward a new protectionist order.