TTIP talks have 'broken down' according to German economy minister
14 replies, posted
[QUOTE]BERLIN (AP) — Free trade talks between the European Union and the United States have failed, Germany's economy minister said Sunday, citing a lack of progress on any of the major sections of the long-running negotiations.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.
Sigmar Gabriel, who is also Germany's Vice Chancellor, compared the TTIP negotiations unfavorably with a free trade deal forged between the 28-nation EU and Canada, which he said was fairer for both sides.
"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.
Gabriel accused Washington of being "angry" about the deal that the EU struck with Canada, known as CETA, because it contains elements the U.S. doesn't want to see in the TTIP.
"We mustn't submit to the American proposals," said Gabriel, who is also the head of Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party.
Gabriel's ministry isn't directly involved in the negotiations with Washington because trade agreements are negotiated at the EU level. But such a damning verdict from a leading official in Europe's biggest economy is likely to make further talks between the EU executive and the Obama administration harder.
Gabriel's comments contrast with those of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said last month that TTIP was "absolutely in Europe's interest."
Popular opposition to a free trade agreement with the United States is strong in Germany. Campaigners have called for nationwide protests against the talks on Sept. 17 — about year before Germany's next general election.[/QUOTE]
[URL]http://bigstory.ap.org/611ff828b5ed44d5ad56ab46e0781e52[/URL]
its a bad deal. the opposition to trade agreements is against bad deals, why cant we walk from a bad deal when we all know its a bad deal
So TTIP is just reworded from TTP?
Entirely seperate from the TPP.
Good, good, let them remain stalled.
A free trade agreement with the US would be good if efforts were made sure that items on the market adhered to a common set of standards. It would be my guess that the US doesn't want some of the regulation the EU has, and vice versa. Making things a bit hard.
[QUOTE=momoiro;50962875]A free trade agreement with the US would be good if efforts were made sure that items on the market adhered to a common set of standards. It would be my guess that the US doesn't want some of the regulation the EU has, and vice versa. Making things a bit hard.[/QUOTE]
actually kinda correct, US wanted to drive down regulations to the same as the US. EU didn't want that.
Most People like free trade, Most people just hate bad trade deals.
Not too surprising - EU has stricter labor regulations and product safety regulations than a lot of things that the US has. Free trade would be a net positive between the US and EU, no question - you don't have the issues of exporting jobs to the same degree that you do if you have free trade with countries in southeast Asia that literally use child slavery and shit. But it's not that surprising that the EU and the US couldn't agree on standards for open free trade.
US should just fuck off with their laws.
So it failed because the EU couldn't stoop down to the lack of US regulation, or the US couldn't get on the EU level of regulation?
Some say the EU has too much regulation on everything but as a consumer I feel a lot safer with the amount of regulation we got here. Especially when it comes to food.
[QUOTE=MrBob1337;50962643]Entirely seperate from the TPP.[/QUOTE]
seperate but equal
[editline]28th August 2016[/editline]
when these fail one would hope it would be an eye opener for the massive lack of transparency and public interest involved in this deal as well as the unprecedented levels of corporate and special interest involvement with this deal
[QUOTE=maurits150;50963974]Some say the EU has too much regulation on everything but as a consumer I feel a lot safer with the amount of regulation we got here. Especially when it comes to food.[/QUOTE]
Our second most popular party calls for deregulation and our third most popular party calls for no regulation. That combined with the massive corporate influence, so much it's almost corporate control, and it's no surprise the US wants to deregulate Europe so we can flood it with substandard crap.
Can we please leave NAFTA and cancel CETA and TPP
Free trade agreements are fucking awful
[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;50966116]Can we please leave NAFTA and cancel CETA and TPP
Free trade agreements are fucking awful[/QUOTE]
Free trade agreements are excellent [i]when they're negotiated in a way that manages to benefit the relevant parties[/i]. NAFTA hasn't benefited the US as much as expected. TPP is a bad free trade agreement. When they're done well, and you're not dumping unused government-subsidized corn from the US into Mexico through NAFTA and hurting both US and Mexican farmers, they're absolutely a net positive. For one, the more economically intertwined countries are, the less likely they are to go to war with one another. You're unlikely to go to war with a country that you're economically dependent on for exports and imports. Widespread, interconnected global commerce decreases the likelihood of war. Free trade allows countries to specialize - Japan as a country would be completely incapable of feeding its population if it didn't import food and export high-skill goods and services.
There's plenty of economic arguments against free trade that I'm fairly convinced by, too. Diversification, instead of specialization, reduces risk - self-producing energy and food and shit is smarter and less risky than importing half of it. But "all free trade is always bad no matter what" is a [I]really[/I] stupid oversimplification. It's a very, very, very complex issue that's in the process of being beaten to death by economists and politicians around the globe.
Europe working like its intended for once... the TTip is full of bullshit going directly against the european values and current laws of the land. Also lots of stuff Europe just is not authorized to mandate to its member states... The fact that the USA refused to back down from those claims and try to bully push them trough anyway is why the bill got derailed.
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