Opponents of a proposed transatlantic trade deal yesterday hoped to draw tens of thousands onto German streets, on the eve of a visit by US President Barack Obama.
Obama’s trip — to open an industrial technology fair in the northern city of Hannover and hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders — was intended to lend momentum to flagging efforts to see the world’s biggest trade pact finalized this year.
In an interview with German newspaper Bild ahead of the visit, Obama reiterated his belief that the deal will strengthen trade and create jobs in the US and the EU.
Photo: AFP
However, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has run into major opposition, not least in Europe’s top economy, Germany, where its foes have raised the specter of eroding ecological and labor market standards and condemned the secrecy shrouding the talks.
A loose coalition of trade unions, environmentalists and consumer protection groups were to join the colorful march, at which activists from the anti-globalization organization ATTAC said they would dress up as “hippie” Merkel and Obama characters, hoisting banners reading “Free Love Instead of Free Trade” and “We are not demonstrating against Obama, but against TTIP,” said the head of another campaign group, Campact, Christoph Bautz, who expected about 50,000 people to attend the rally in Hannover.
“TTIP is deeply un-American and anti-European, because it endangers our shared value: democracy,” Bautz said.
A similar protest in October last year in Berlin drew up to 250,000 people, according to organizers, signaling an uphill battle for the deal’s passage.
“TTIP was never going to be an easy undertaking, but it is still a very important one if you are interested in seeing prosperity in Europe grow,” Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters on Friday.
“Our goal is to wrap up the negotiations this year and the chancellor will underline this in the talks with President Obama in Hannover,” Seibert added.
US Trade Representative Michael Froman on Friday told the German business daily Handelsblatt that if the negotiators fall short, “there will be real doubts about whether we will ever get this agreement through.”
The Hannover meeting comes just before a 13th round of TTIP negotiations starts tomorrow in New York.
Froman insisted that a transatlantic free-trade deal could be the glue to hold the EU together as “centrifugal forces” threaten to rip it apart.
“The refugee crisis, the danger of Britain leaving the EU, continuing concerns about Greece and the rise of right-wing populist parties in many countries — our hope is that TTIP can be a positive force and Europe can show that it can also stand together in difficult times,” he said.
However, skepticism in the face of those arguments is growing in Germany, with German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel this week saying: “It is possible that TTIP will fail.”
Just 17 percent of Germans say they support TTIP, according to a Bertelsmann Foundation poll of more than 3,000 people published on Thursday, in free fall from the 55 percent registered two years ago.
During the same period, firm opposition to the pact rose to 33 percent from 25 percent.
The picture in the US, where sentiment on trade deals has soured as a fractious presidential election season drags on, is hardly more promising.
The “Yes” camp has shrunk to 15 percent from 53 percent, while nearly half — 46 percent — say they feel too ill-informed to form an opinion.
US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the longest-serving member of Obama’s Cabinet, said on a visit to Germany this month that the time had come to rally around the accord, also in the interest of global food security.
With a protectionist streak running through the presidential race from both major parties, Obama’s successor at the White House would likely be a less-ardent backer of free trade.
Given the limited amount of political capital available to a “lame duck” president, the White House is likely to aggressively pursue ratification of one of Obama’s signal achievements, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal with Asia, than to struggle to complete negotiations on TTIP, analysts on both sides of the Atlantic said.
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