Talks on EU-US trade deal have failed: Germany

Berlin

GERMANY'S Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Sunday that negotiations on a massive trade agreement between the European Union and the United States were effectively dead in the water.

"The talks with the US have de facto failed because we Europeans of course must not succumb to American demands," he told public broadcaster ZDF. "Nothing is moving forward." Negotiators from the US and the EU are in talks to finalise the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which would create the world's largest free trade area.

But the negotiations have been bogged down over the terms of the agreement as well as Britain's shock vote to leave the EU and rising opposition to the deal in France and Germany. The setbacks have raised serious doubts that it will be achieved by the end of the year as hoped.

Activists who have opposed TTIP since negotiations began in 2013 say the deal would only benefit multinationals and harm consumers.

France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said it would be "impossible" for the two sides to conclude negotiations on a trade deal by the end of 2016.

Behind the scenes, top diplomats have told AFP that talks may be suspended until after the US presidential election in November as well as elections in France and Germany next year.

In the interview on Sunday, Mr Gabriel was more upbeat about a Canada-EU free trade agreement, which he called "a big step forward", adding he would fight for its ratification. The deal known as Ceta was formally concluded in 2014 and requires the approval of 28 EU member states and European Parliament.

In Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May asked her Cabinet ministers to come up with a blueprint for how their departments may be able to benefit from Britain's exit from the EU ahead of the Group of 20 (G-20) leaders' summit in China.

Policymakers will have to come up with their action plans for a Cabinet meeting at Chequers, the Prime Minister's country house, on Wednesday, The Sunday Telegraph reported, without citing anyone. UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is resisting plans by some ministers to pull out of the EU single market, The Sunday Times reported.

Mrs May at the meeting is expected to say her top priority is finding a plan that will help make Brexit a success before she flies to Hangzhou, China, for the G-20 leaders summit on Sept 4-5. More than three quarters of Mrs May's Cabinet had campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU before the June 23 referendum.

The Cabinet is said to be divided over whether Britain should continue to operate in Europe's single market, the Times reported, without citing anyone.

Treasury officials back access to the market for the financial-services industry as a top government priority, the Times reported, while chief Brexit negotiator David Davis and Trade Secretary Liam Fox think Britain will have to leave to fulfil Mrs May's pledge to impose border controls, according to the newspaper. AFP, BLOOMBERG