TTIP trade deal dealt another blow as Hollande questions timing

PanARMENIAN.Net - The TTIP trade deal was dealt another blow on Tuesday, August 30 as the French president cast doubt on when an agreement would be reached, BBC News reports.

Francois Hollande said it would not be finalised before Barack Obama left office later this year.

Meanwhile, Germany's economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said it had no chance of being agreed before the U.S. presidential election in November.

The Americans were unwilling to compromise with Europe, he said.

Gabriel, who said over the weekend that the talks had in effect failed, also questioned whether the deal had any chance after the election.

"But if the Americans don't move towards the Europeans, then Europe can't agree to a 'TTIP light'. And with this, the project - at least how it was all planned for this year - has failed," he said.

The U.S. and the European Union have been negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, also known as TTIP, for three years. Both sides had aimed to agree a deal this year.

TTIP aims to reduce or remove a wide range of barriers to transatlantic trade and investment, but has proved controversial in both Europe and America.

A spokesman for the U.S. trade chief told German magazine Der Spiegel on Tuesday that talks on TTIP were progressing.