Brussels, 25/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - During the first day of US President Barack Obama's visit to Germany on Sunday 25 April, he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke in Hannover in favour of concluding negotiations for the transatlantic trade and investment partnership agreement (TTIP) by the end of 2016 - despite the opposition TTIP arouses on both side of the Atlantic.
“I am confident that we are going to be able to get this done. I don't anticipate that we will complete ratification by the end of the year, but I do anticipate that we can have completed the agreement”, Obama told press after a meeting with Merkel.
“If we don't make progress this year, then upcoming political transitions in the USA and Europe will result in this agreement not being finished for quite some time”, he then said at the opening of the Hannover industrial technology trade fair.
Nine months from the end of Obama's second term in office in January 2017, Merkel also called for the “chance to be seized” that is offered “by this narrow window of opportunity”. “This won't happen again soon”, she said.
Rejecting harsh criticism of TTIP from the public both in the US and in Europe, which was reflected in a demonstration of over 10,000 people in the streets of Hannover, Obama promised that TTIP would not lower standards, but would actually raise them. TTIP “will greatly contribute to the growth” of the European economy, Merkel said, promising to become involved so that the EU “embarks on a strong dynamic of negotiations”.
The mutual effort to bring progress to the TTIP negotiations was due to be discussed among other international issues at a mini-summit between Obama, Merkel, French President François Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Hannover at the end of Monday afternoon.
At the same time, the 13th round of technical level TTIP negotiations was starting in New York for five days on Monday, where the negotiators were to try and bring as much progress to the talks as possible on each of the three pillars of the negotiations - market access, regulatory cooperation and rules - so as to keep up the pace until the end of July. The final stage of the negotiations will then start after the summer, with a view to finalising an agreement in principle under the Obama administration at the end of 2016 (see EUROPE 11358). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)