Trans-Atlantic Free Trade: US Pushes for Deal Despite NSA Scandal

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/us-pushes-for-free-trade-pact-with-eu-despite-nsa-scandal-a-932913.html



The NSA spying scandal has many in Europe calling for the suspension of negotiations on an EU-US free-trade deal. Officials in Washington are undeterred, and continue to push forward with talks despite growing skepticism this side of the Atlantic.

Trans-Atlantic Free Trade: US Pushes for Deal Despite NSA Scandal
By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Brussels
November 11, 2013 – 03:37 PM

At the beginning of last week, Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative and Barack Obama's go-to man for difficult deal-making, stood in front of an audience inside the German ambassador's residence in Washington. Speaking to participants from a meeting of the Munich Security Conference, he was so confident of the benefits and prospects of a new trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, that it made the recent headlines of a new trans-Atlantic ice age seem overblown.

The proposed free trade agreement between Europe and the US remains a personal priority of US President Barack Obama, Froman assured the guests, adding that the advantages of closer economic ties between the two continents would be beyond belief.

"Froman's speech sounded like a sales pitch, like a sales presentation," a participant later said. Even when a guest asked if the revelations of NSA spying in Europe must be a topic handled during the negotiations, Froman did not get thrown off course. Data protection is not specifically a trade issue, he countered, adding that such things are best settled separately.

The optimistic remarks by the chief US trade negotiator set the tone for the American position in the free trade agreement negotiations. The motto is that most important thing is to continue moving forward, even if leading European politicians such as the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, are calling for suspending negotiations.