EU, US trade deal not dead yet

brussels — A much-debated trade deal between the European Union and the United States is not dead and negotiations will continue with the new US administration after November’s elections, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Saturday.

A similar agreement between the EU and Canada can finally be signed on Sunday after resistance from Belgian local governments led to a last-minute blockade of the agreement which was seven years in the making.

Paul Magnette, the premier of Belgium’s region of Wallonia who led opposition to the Canadian trade deal, told his parliament on Friday that with the concessions he managed to agree, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was “dead and buried”.

Malmstrom said she disagreed with that assessment and work would continue with the new US administration. “TTIP is not dead, but TTIP is not yet an agreement,” she told reporters after a ceremony in Brussels, in which Belgium signed its addendum to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (Ceta) with Canada.

“The US election will naturally bring the negotiations to a pause and we will resume after with the new administration,” she added.

Malmstrom said lessons from the Canadian negotiations would aid in making a deal with the United States. “Some of the experiences, some of the procedures that we have experienced with Ceta, will also be reflected in our work on TTIP,” she said. — Reuters