TTIP: doubts as to the conclusion of the FTA grow – SPIEGEL ONLINE

In the top of the EU Commission, there are obviously strong doubts about whether the TTIP agreement at all can still be closed. The US government is moving far too little, so that this year could be achieved a degree, said a senior representative of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. After the break, the arises through the elections in the US, France and Germany until the end of 2017, a revival of the negotiations will be difficult.

The environmental group Greenpeace had asked the negotiating positions of the US and Europe at the scheduled transatlantic free trade agreement into the net on Monday , The 248 pages show how far the EU and US are apart in their negotiations. (You can read a summary of the major findings from the documents.)

The United States had nothing in the quiver to bring movement in the negotiations, “even the SPD politician Bernd Lange, the Chairman of the Trade Committee in the European Parliament says is. “I can not imagine that the negotiations end favorably, and certainly not before the end of Obama’s term of office.” Markus Ferber, CSU-finance expert at the European Parliament, also believes that in the end no TTIP could come about.

in video: visit to the TTIP reading room at the Brandenburg gate

Germany’s employers President Ingo Kramer warns also against a failure of the negotiations “TTIP is in the foreseeable future the most recent. great opportunity to help shape the world trade in the transatlantic interest and to anchor democratic principles for fair and free trade “, head of the Confederation of German employers’ associations (BDA) said the newspapers of Funke Mediengruppe.

degradation of regulatory duplication and bureaucracy

yesterday? criticized the German car industry, the publication of secret documents from the TTIP talks. The head of the industry association VDA, Matthias Wissmann, accused the advocates of action targeted propaganda. “With the release of negotiation between stalls fears are deliberately to discredit the entire project,” Wissmann said. The published papers are suggesting, among other things, that the US allows for easier importing of German cars in return demand the acceptance of more agricultural products from the United States in Europe.

Wissmann emphasized, the it at TTIP “not about to soften social, product and environmental standards, but reduce regulatory duplication and bureaucracy”. European standards should not decline it. “That every negotiator’s commitment to its interests, in line with normal mechanics of such negotiations.” Criticism must be examined carefully. “But who represents the agreement as such into question, proving consumers and business a disservice.”

The US responds demonstratively left on the publication date of secret documents from the negotiations on TTIP. It was merely a state of negotiations and not to results, it said in Washington. It is in the nature of negotiations, to have different positions and to move closer over time.

The EU and the US have been negotiating since mid-2013 over a “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” (TTIP). The aim is to reduce tariffs and other barriers to investments, so that trade between the two economic superpowers EU and USA more thriving with 800 million consumers. Throughout Europe, there are protests against the agreement, especially in Germany

How TTIP -. Finally understood