TTIP Has 'De Facto Failed,' Says German Economic Minister
'Negotiations with the U.S. have de facto failed, because of course as Europeans we couldn't allow ourselves to submit to American demands'
This post has been updated.
Germany's Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister said that the controversial Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has "de facto failed," admitting that negotiations between the U.S. and E.U. have completely stalled.
"Negotiations with the U.S. have de facto failed, because of course as Europeans we couldn't allow ourselves to submit to American demands," Sigmar Gabriel told the German news station ZDF in an interview that will air at 7pm German time Sunday, according to Der Spiegel.
"Everything has stalled," Gabriel said.
" TTIP would have resulted in a massive corporate power grab."
--Kevin Smith, Global Justice Now
"Nobody is really admitting it," Gabriel added, according to the Independent.
The Independent reports on the context to Gabriel's remarks:
The 14th round of [TTIP] negotiations between American and E.U. officials took place in Brussels in July and was the third round in six months.
[...] He said that during the talks neither side had agreed on a single common chapter out of the 27 being deliberated.
The UK-based economic justice group Global Justice Now celebrated Gabriel's comments. Kevin Smith, a spokesperson for the group, said:
The fact that TTIP has failed is testament to the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the streets to protest against it, the three million people who signed a petition calling for it to be scrapped, and the huge coalition of civil society groups, trade unions and activists who came together to stop it. TTIP would have resulted in a massive corporate power grab, and sovereign democracies across the E.U. would have been deeply compromised.
We're still not out of the woods in terms of dealing the E.U.'s legacy of toxic trade deals. CETA, the free trade deal between Canada and the E.U. has already been ratified, and if the European Parliament passes it, it will come into effect before the U.K. parliament has had any chance to vote on it. So many of the controversial elements of TTIP would effectively come in through the back door with CETA, and people across Europe are already mobilizing in large numbers to stop this attempted corporate coup just like they have done with TTIP.
In fact, despite noting the failure of the TTIP negotiations, Gabriel still told ZDF that he believes the Canada-E.U. Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a better agreement than the TTIP--but also observed that it is being perceived by the public as interchangeable with TTIP, according to Deutschlandrundfunk.
Yet CETA is having its own procedural problems, and its future may be in doubt: as CBC reported earlier this month, multiple European countries are still attempting to alter and amend the agreement, and disagree on how to implement the deal--a mere two months before it is supposed to be ratified.
Leaked meeting notes quote Jean-Luc Demarty, E.U. director-general for trade, saying that CETA is a "litmus test" for E.U. trade policy, CBC reports. Demarty reportedly added that an inability to ratify the deal "would be a big credibility problem for the E.U.: it would be 'close to death.'"
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just three days to go in our Spring Campaign, we're falling short of our make-or-break goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This post has been updated.
Germany's Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister said that the controversial Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has "de facto failed," admitting that negotiations between the U.S. and E.U. have completely stalled.
"Negotiations with the U.S. have de facto failed, because of course as Europeans we couldn't allow ourselves to submit to American demands," Sigmar Gabriel told the German news station ZDF in an interview that will air at 7pm German time Sunday, according to Der Spiegel.
"Everything has stalled," Gabriel said.
" TTIP would have resulted in a massive corporate power grab."
--Kevin Smith, Global Justice Now
"Nobody is really admitting it," Gabriel added, according to the Independent.
The Independent reports on the context to Gabriel's remarks:
The 14th round of [TTIP] negotiations between American and E.U. officials took place in Brussels in July and was the third round in six months.
[...] He said that during the talks neither side had agreed on a single common chapter out of the 27 being deliberated.
The UK-based economic justice group Global Justice Now celebrated Gabriel's comments. Kevin Smith, a spokesperson for the group, said:
The fact that TTIP has failed is testament to the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the streets to protest against it, the three million people who signed a petition calling for it to be scrapped, and the huge coalition of civil society groups, trade unions and activists who came together to stop it. TTIP would have resulted in a massive corporate power grab, and sovereign democracies across the E.U. would have been deeply compromised.
We're still not out of the woods in terms of dealing the E.U.'s legacy of toxic trade deals. CETA, the free trade deal between Canada and the E.U. has already been ratified, and if the European Parliament passes it, it will come into effect before the U.K. parliament has had any chance to vote on it. So many of the controversial elements of TTIP would effectively come in through the back door with CETA, and people across Europe are already mobilizing in large numbers to stop this attempted corporate coup just like they have done with TTIP.
In fact, despite noting the failure of the TTIP negotiations, Gabriel still told ZDF that he believes the Canada-E.U. Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a better agreement than the TTIP--but also observed that it is being perceived by the public as interchangeable with TTIP, according to Deutschlandrundfunk.
Yet CETA is having its own procedural problems, and its future may be in doubt: as CBC reported earlier this month, multiple European countries are still attempting to alter and amend the agreement, and disagree on how to implement the deal--a mere two months before it is supposed to be ratified.
Leaked meeting notes quote Jean-Luc Demarty, E.U. director-general for trade, saying that CETA is a "litmus test" for E.U. trade policy, CBC reports. Demarty reportedly added that an inability to ratify the deal "would be a big credibility problem for the E.U.: it would be 'close to death.'"
This post has been updated.
Germany's Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister said that the controversial Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has "de facto failed," admitting that negotiations between the U.S. and E.U. have completely stalled.
"Negotiations with the U.S. have de facto failed, because of course as Europeans we couldn't allow ourselves to submit to American demands," Sigmar Gabriel told the German news station ZDF in an interview that will air at 7pm German time Sunday, according to Der Spiegel.
"Everything has stalled," Gabriel said.
" TTIP would have resulted in a massive corporate power grab."
--Kevin Smith, Global Justice Now
"Nobody is really admitting it," Gabriel added, according to the Independent.
The Independent reports on the context to Gabriel's remarks:
The 14th round of [TTIP] negotiations between American and E.U. officials took place in Brussels in July and was the third round in six months.
[...] He said that during the talks neither side had agreed on a single common chapter out of the 27 being deliberated.
The UK-based economic justice group Global Justice Now celebrated Gabriel's comments. Kevin Smith, a spokesperson for the group, said:
The fact that TTIP has failed is testament to the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the streets to protest against it, the three million people who signed a petition calling for it to be scrapped, and the huge coalition of civil society groups, trade unions and activists who came together to stop it. TTIP would have resulted in a massive corporate power grab, and sovereign democracies across the E.U. would have been deeply compromised.
We're still not out of the woods in terms of dealing the E.U.'s legacy of toxic trade deals. CETA, the free trade deal between Canada and the E.U. has already been ratified, and if the European Parliament passes it, it will come into effect before the U.K. parliament has had any chance to vote on it. So many of the controversial elements of TTIP would effectively come in through the back door with CETA, and people across Europe are already mobilizing in large numbers to stop this attempted corporate coup just like they have done with TTIP.
In fact, despite noting the failure of the TTIP negotiations, Gabriel still told ZDF that he believes the Canada-E.U. Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a better agreement than the TTIP--but also observed that it is being perceived by the public as interchangeable with TTIP, according to Deutschlandrundfunk.
Yet CETA is having its own procedural problems, and its future may be in doubt: as CBC reported earlier this month, multiple European countries are still attempting to alter and amend the agreement, and disagree on how to implement the deal--a mere two months before it is supposed to be ratified.
Leaked meeting notes quote Jean-Luc Demarty, E.U. director-general for trade, saying that CETA is a "litmus test" for E.U. trade policy, CBC reports. Demarty reportedly added that an inability to ratify the deal "would be a big credibility problem for the E.U.: it would be 'close to death.'"