Advancing TTIP Deal Unlikely Until After 2018 - Former US Official

© REUTERS / Wolfgang RattayThe flag of the USA flutters over a hall of the Hanover Fair decorated with a banner supporting the free trade agreement TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) in Hanover, Germany April 25, 2016
The flag of the USA flutters over a hall of the Hanover Fair decorated with a banner supporting the free trade agreement TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) in Hanover, Germany April 25, 2016 - Sputnik International
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Progress in the US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is unlikely to occur until 2018 after the US, German, and French elections are settled, former State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, Heather Conley told Sputnik.

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.

A combination photo shows signs against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade agreement. - Sputnik International
TTIP Nations Must 'Reframe' Free Trade Debate Amid Growing Discontent

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.

Anti- Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)activists sink the lettering TTIP in the Maschsee in Hanover on April 21, 2016 ahead a meeting of leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy on April 25, 2016 - Sputnik International
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“I think there is going to have to be a reset in 2018,” Conley said on Tuesday.

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.

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