Free trade negotiations between EU and USA fall through?

The German Minister for Economic Affairs, Sigmar Gabriel, has stated that the negotiations about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have fallen through.

– In my opinion, the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it – said Gabriel, who is also the Vice Chancellor of Germany. He said that the two sides hadn't reached agreement about any of the total of 27 chapters in 14 negotiation rounds.

Gabriel unfavorably compared the negotiations on the agreement between the EU and the USA to the free trade agreement proposed between the EU and Canada, a more just agreement to both sides, according to him.

The EU's chief TTIP negotiator, Ignacio Garcia Bercero, however, rejected Gabriel's claims of the failure of the negotiations.

– No, no. Remember what Mark Twain said – Bercero said, referring to the American writer's quip about the reports of his death being greatly exaggerated.

There has been only a slight progress in the negotiations on the TTIP in the past years.

Sigmar Gabriel

free trade between European Union and United States of America

free trade between EU and USA

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

TTIP