EU-US trade talks seen dragging on until mid-2016 | EurActiv

EU-US trade talks seen dragging on until mid-2016 | EurActiv

As the European Union and the United States wrap
up a week of talks on the transatlantic trade and investment partnership
(TTIP) in Washington, the EU still says it hopes to have something to
show before the European elections in May. But observers say the real,
final deadline is mid 2016, just before the US elections.

Partners on both sides of the Atlantic
have expressed hope to finish negotiations on the trade deal swiftly,
perhaps even before the end of this year.

But experts argue this target is over-optimistic. “There is
no evidence that they can get this done before [that date],” Bruce
Stokes, director of the global economic program at the Washington-based
Pew Research Center, told EurActiv.

The real deadline negotiators should focus on, Stokes said, “is
whether they can get it done before the presidential elections in the
US, in 2016.”

European and American representatives engaged in a stocktaking exercise in Washington this week on the negotiation process. A fourth round of talks in due in March, at an EU-US summit in Brussels.

But negotiations are likely to be suspended between April and the autumn due to the European Parliament elections.

Christian Leffler, managing director for the Americas at the EU’s
external action service, said there was an urge to come with early "easy
deliverables", but that there was none. So we'll slide into the usual
tit for tat negotiation and the prospects for making any real progress,
are bleak. We should keep cool but continue the real work.”