Don’t give up on free-trade negotiations between the European Union and the U.S. before they’ve even started, a top EU official said.
“It’s too early to say that our trade discussions with the U.S. are doomed to failure,” European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday. “There are discussions going on at several levels, and I still see lots of light at the end of the tunnel — we can end up having some sort of agreement with the United States on trade.”
European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who is waiting to get authority from EU governments to start the negotiations, said last month that a U.S.-EU trade accord could be reached before the end of this year. Her projection came even as the two sides dispute what exactly commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed on last July as a starting point to the trade talks.
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