On Saturday 29 October, Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said she had faith in the ongoing talks over an EU-United States free-trade deal (TTIP) despite the two sides' failure to reach agreement before the end of Obama administration in January 2017, due in particular to persistent disagreement over market access.
After a ceremony marking Belgium’s signing of the EU-Canada free-trade agreement (CETA) on Sunday 30 October (see EUROPE 11658) paving the way for the EU to sign CETA, Malmström said TTIP was not dead, but neither was it an agreement.
In an interview with TV5 Monde on Monday, French Foreign Minister Matthias Fekl again criticised the lack of transparency and reciprocity in the TTIP talks. The talks are due to resume on a new basis under the next US administration, said Fekl, with the precondition that there cannot be any negotiations while the United States applies its laws unilaterally, punishing foreign companies for lack of knowledge about US law. In an interview with radio station France Inter on Wednesday 2 November, Fekl reiterated his opposition to the current TTIP negotiating process, criticising the way French agriculture was being scorned in the talks.
The last round of technical TTIP talks in New York on 3 to 7 October only managed to make progress with consolidation of the wording of the agreement, particularly relating to regulations (see EUROPE 11641). Ahead of the US presidential elections on 8 November, the next round of negotiations, the 16th, has not yet been scheduled. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)