Save the Free Trade Agreement with the US

A trade agreement is neither a marriage of love nor a handshake deal, but a contract with advantages for both sides. Therefore, we mustn’t mix the controversy over U.S. espionage with the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Wolfgang Bosbach is a respected man in the Christian Democratic Union party. That the well-known Christian Democratic Union home affairs expert wants to interrupt the negotiations over a free trade agreement with the U.S. proves two things: the German attitude toward America has turned incredibly sour since the American espionage attempts came out, and Berlin feels exploited and betrayed.

Also, the TTIP Agreement isn’t seen as an agreement that will bring advantages to both sides. On the contrary, for many, the TTIP is a treaty that disadvantages Europeans, and thereby also Germans — an infernal thing, which only benefits the Americans.

This perspective is dangerously irrational for all of us that could profit from stronger trans-Atlantic trading. Sure, America’s espionage attempts are no trivial matter. The federal government would do well to clear it up and, where necessary, react accordingly.

But all that has nothing to do with world trade, the TTIP or the German export economy. German politicians should stop trying to construct a link between the two, whereby they claim that someone who can’t be trusted in matters of espionage cannot be trusted in matters of commerce. Because that is nonsense.

We’re Talking about Free Trade, Not Civil Liberties

A free trade agreement is not a marriage of love. And it’s not simply a handshake deal, whereby one only has to look in the other person’s eyes in order to base one’s judgment and wholehearted trust. It is an agreement between two economic blocs — in the case of the TTIP: the Europeans and the U.S. — with which economic growth is to be promoted by both sides and to the benefit of all parties.

Who can do what under which circumstances is specified to the nth degree. Tariffs, environmental and social standards are specified. It’s not about civil liberties versus free trade; it’s about further growth for both sides through trade. Germany, as an export nation, should have been able to embrace this wholeheartedly.

Instead, here in Germany we find large resistance to the TTIP. The planned free trade agreement with the U.S. brings opponents of globalization, environmental groups and critics of capitalism together in their resistance. All who feel called to somehow improve the world are involved. As an opponent, America unites.

These well-intentioned people aren’t interested in the people who earn their livelihoods in exports, not only the big companies but smaller ones as well. For them, the fact that Germany’s prosperity is not built on tourism, but international trade, is irrelevant. From the beginning, for many opponents of the TTIP agreement, it’s been less about legitimate criticism of individual issues, but against the TTIP in general.

Faint-hearted and Anxious People Determine Public Opinion

There are plenty of points raised in the TTIP discussions which one could dispute — not with a view to prevent the agreement but rather to improve it. From a German perspective, the sticking points are above all environmental and food standards. To its opponents, the TTIP means the lowering of these hard-fought-for standards, as if there was no alternative. We’re more scared of genetically modified foods and the notorious “chlorine chickens” from the U.S. than we are of stagnation and unemployment.

Fear of an investment protection clause, which could allow companies a way of getting around national laws, is an argument used against the TTIP. The lack of transparency in dealings between the EU and the U.S. alone is considered reason enough by opponents to stop the whole thing. Faint-hearted and anxious people determine public opinion.

European policy hasn’t been mentioned in the debate for a long time. The EU hasn’t managed to reach the majority of the population with its totally correct arguments in favor of the agreement. It’s failing in its task to convey the potential advantages of the TTIP to the population.

It would mean that two large economic blocs are totally capable of conducting trade, with profits to both sides. Europeans, including Germans, have to make their demands objectively and without sentimentality. They should make clear what is important to them and where there is no room for compromise.

Merkel and Gabriel Are Fighting Much Too Timidly

All participants will make concessions if they are interested in the contract. Even the Americans, whose attitude so far has been to try and grind down European standards. In the end — which was originally planned for the end of next year — there will be an agreement on the table. Either all involved will agree on it, because it clearly offers considerable benefits for business, or the TTIP won’t become a reality, because important points couldn’t be agreed upon — in which case we will have missed a great opportunity, which won’t come around again for some time.

Angela Merkel knows that. Her federal minister for economic affairs, Social Democratic Party chairman Sigmar Gabriel, knows it too. However, here in Germany, they are too timid in their arguments in favor of the TTIP. The agreement plays no part in German politics; it’s not an issue on which one can win votes. According to estimates, if it goes wrong or at least not very well, the responsibility lies more in Brussels. This tactic is nothing new in Berlin.

This political estimate may be correct, but it has one problem: in the eyes of many European voters, the EU Commission, which is leading the negotiations, does not have the authority to agree to such contracts. And it also apparently does not have the power to prevail against the confident Americans. Their opaque conduct in negotiations gives critics an unnecessary boost.

The only chance of saving the free trade agreement in the eyes of the German public, despite all the criticism, is probably through the intervention of the chancellor. After all, in her third term in office, Angela Merkel enjoys the confidence of the people. Two-thirds of people would like her to be the Christian Democratic Union’s candidate again in 2017. If that doesn’t give her the mandate to make this agreement — which is so important for German prosperity — a top priority, then what does?