German Vice Chancellor Warns on Trans-Atlantic Trade Talks
August 28 2016 - 12:19PM
Dow Jones News
By Zeke Turner and Tom Fairless
BERLIN--German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel warned on Sunday
that negotiations to build a vast trans-Atlantic free-trade zone
have failed, amid mounting criticism of the deal, particularly in
Germany and France.
"From where I'm sitting, the negotiations with the Americans
have failed. Just nobody says that," said Mr. Gabriel, who has
represented Germany in the talks, during an appearance at the
German government's open house.
Brussels and Washington have been rushing to complete the
negotiations by the end of this year, but members of Mr. Gabriel's
center-left party spoke out last month to say they were dead in the
water. France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned earlier this
year that the deal would serve as "a breeding ground for
populism."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a full-throated advocate of the
deal from the start, has said she would like the negotiations to be
completed before Germany's federal elections next year.
Meanwhile the deal has been rapidly losing popularity with the
German public. In May, public broadcaster ARD's DeutschlandTrend
survey showed that 70% of Germans opposed the deal, a 15-point
increase since 2014.
Write to Tom Fairless at tom.fairless@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 28, 2016 12:04 ET (16:04 GMT)
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