President Obama was hoping to get two trade agreements in the waning days
of his administration.
However, this week the German Economy Minister
stated the US-EU TTIP talks were “de facto dead”. The US-Asia TPP talks
have been dead as a doornob for some time.
Both deals were allegedly about free trade. In fact, neither was.
Nonetheless, that both deals died after years of negotiation is systematic
of a bigger problem: rising protectionism everywhere, led by the US and EU.
Please consider Austria, France to Propose Restarting EU-U.S. Trade Talks
Under New Name.
Austria and France will on Friday propose ending the current round of
trade talks between the United States and the European Union, and starting
fresh talks under a new name, Austrian Economy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner
said.
“The free trade talks with the USA should begin again under a new title
and with different substantive headings,” including greater transparency,
Mitterlehner told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper.
He said he and French Trade Minister Matthias Fekl would push for a new
start to the WTO’s Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) at a
meeting of EU trade ministers in the Slovakian capital Bratislava.
He said the talks should resume after the U.S. presidential election on
Nov. 8.
Fekl last month said he would request a halt to TTIP talks at the
ministerial meeting after German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel declared
that they were “de facto dead”.
The French minister told the Handeslblatt newspaper that the United States
had demanded too much and not compromised enough.
“A crazy machine is moving here, the negotiations are a failure, nobody
believes that they will come to a successful conclusion,” he was quoted as
saying.
New Name Needed
Since a new name is needed, I invite readers to suggest some. I am drawing
a blank. But I have to warn, manure by any other name still stinks.
A sweet trade agreement would fit on a napkin: “Effective immediately, we
abolish all tariffs and subsidies.” Anything else is not free trade.
I would settle in a heartbeat for “Effective immediately, we abolish all
tariffs”, whether or not any other country did the same.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock.
