WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — Earlier on Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande and German Economic Affairs Minister Sigmar Gabriel suggested that TTIP negotiations could not be concluded by the end of the year, as a result of the 2016 US presidential elections.
Both Germany and France, the EU’s largest economies, not counting Britain, will hold their elections in 2017, which could complicate political support for the US-EU free trade agreement.
The negotiating parties will likely have to work out a “repositioning” after 2018 “when we see what the French and German elections brings us, [and] where Brexit is,” Conley explained, referring to the British plans to leave the European Union.
On both sides of the Atlantic, there is growing public skepticism over the TTIP free-trade agreement, the details of which have not been released to the public.
