BRUSSELS: With his move this week to conclude negotiations on a deal with Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim economies, Barack Obama went a long way to achieving one of the main pillars of an ambitious trade agenda.
So what about another? Can the US and the EU now seal the deal on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a proposed pact that has become a political lightning rod in Europe but can feel like a forgotten project in the halls of power in Washington?
More than two years after negotiations started, the consensus view on both sides of the Atlantic is increasingly that the project is unlikely to be finished before Mr Obama leaves the White House in 15 months’ time.
Meeting that deadline, says Miriam Sapiro, who until last year oversaw the negotiations with the EU as deputy US trade representative, would require a significant acceleration of the talks.
“If both sides want to finish next year it is possible. But they are going to have to work very hard,” she said.
Both sides, however, appear ready to try.
At a meeting in Washington last month Cecilia Malmström, the EU’s trade commissioner, and Mike Froman, the US trade representative, agreed to “accelerate” negotiations. On Monday Ms Malmström greeted the news of the conclusion of the TPP — the world’s biggest trade pact for two decades — as good news for world trade as a whole.
