Clock ticking on US-European trade talks

WILL the ambitious Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the world’s largest trade pact, ever see the light of day?

After leaks from the closeddoor negotiations surfaced on Monday, a deal between the Americans and the Europeans looks less likely, as scepticism over the agreement grows on both sides of the Atlantic.

Engaged in tough trade negotiations since mid-2013, the US and the European Union (EU) both tried to downplay the trove of TTIP documents put online by Greenpeace, describing them as “misleading”, and deploring “wrong” interpretations of them.

But the fact remains: despite the efforts of US President Barack Obama, who wants to clinch the trade deal by the end of the year, success is looking increasingly unlikely.

A halt in the TTIP negotiations was “the most probable option”, a top French trade official said yesterday, blaming Washington for the impasse.

Given France’s weight in the EU, “There cannot be an agreement without France, and much less against France,” said Matthias Fekl, a junior minister responsible for representing Paris in the talks.

Edward Alden of the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, said the most striking element of the leaked documents was that it showed “the two sides are still so far apart in the negotiations; that there are such big issues that remain unresolved”.

With the TTIP, the US and the 28-country EU want to topple regulatory and tariff barriers to trade and investment.

There are plenty of thorny issues to tackle, from market access to opening up the EU services sector and improving European access to US government procurement projects.

Negotiators wrapped up the 13th round of talks in New York on Friday, and said they had made progress. But there was a sense of irritation on the European side about the US refusal to open access to its public procurement.

“We need to reach a similar level of progress in marketaccess procurement as we have already done in tariffs and services in order to move the negotiations towards the endgame,” said Ignacio Garcia Bercero, chief negotiator for the European Commission.

The clock, however, is ticking. An ardent defender of TTIP, Mr Obama will leave the White House in January and his successor could be less inclined to promote free trade — an issue that has fallen out of favour with the public.

The situation is hardly less politically sensitive in Europe, where there are deep suspicions that the deal will erode ecological and health regulations.

Next year, general elections will be held in both Germany and France, where debate over the TTIP is intense and could feature in their campaigns.