from Bill Still
lass=”” >Good morning, I’m still reporting on bad trade deals.
A massive trade deal between the European Union and the United States has failed, according to Germany’s Vice-Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel.
It’s called the TTIP – or Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – and is to the Atlantic Ocean what the TPP trade deal is to the Pacific – another bad deal for the little people surrounding either body of water.
Gabriel said yesterday that negotiations have been going on since February 2014, with 14 rounds of talks, and yet the two sides have not agreed an a single chapter of the 27 chapters being discussed.
According to Gabriel:
“In my opinion the negotiations with the United States have de facto failed, even though nobody is really admitting it.”
Although like the TPP – all negotiations are held in secret – the stated goal of the TTIP is to reduce trade barriers (read tariffs) for the biggest businesses by January 2017.
Mr. Gabriel’s comments on the TTIP negotiations are raising hopes that a US-UK trade deal could be concluded shortly after Britain Brexits from the EU.
The British stock market has been on a tear since the June 23 Brexit vote, as have business investments – despite dire pre-Brexit warnings from the British political class that the island nation would surely sink beneath the waves if her people voted to get out of the EU.
President Obama is undaunted, however concerning his chances of getting the TPP bill through Congress. He now claims he will get Congress to pass it during his “Lame Duck” before he exits the American political scene on January 20, 2017.
I’m still reporting from Washington. Good day.