– Support in free fall –
The Hanover meeting comes just before a 13th round of TTIP negotiations starting Monday in New York.
Froman insisted that a transatlantic free trade deal could provide useful 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.
But scepticism against those arguments is growing, not diminishing in Germany, and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel admitted this week: “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 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 United States, 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 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the longest serving member of Obama’s cabinet, warned on a visit to Germany this month that the time was now 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 muscular backer of free trade.
Given the limited amount of political capital available to a “lame duck” president, analysts on both sides of the Atlantic said, the White House was more likely to aggressively pursue ratification of one of Obama’s signal achievements, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal (TPP) with Asia, than to struggle to complete negotiations on TTIP.
