US President Obama in farewell visit to Germany
US President Barack Obama (left) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sit during the official opening ceremony of the Hanover industry Fair at the Hannover Congress Centre HCC in Hanover, on April 24, 2016. Obama is in Germany on the last leg of his tour of Europe and the Gulf, planning to underscore close ties with Chancellor Merkel and make the case for a controversial transatlantic free trade agreement PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
- US President Barack Obama arrived on a valedictory visit to Germany on Sunday to see his “friend” Chancellor Angela Merkel, but their show of unity looked unlikely to silence opposition to their push for a transatlantic trade pact.
- While his fifth and final official trip to Europe’s biggest economy is expected to cover global crises, one of the headline goals is to advance negotiations on what could become the world’s biggest free trade agreement.
- Before he left for Germany, Mr Obama told the BBC the United States would continue efforts to broker a transition deal between the Syrian regime and its moderate opponents to end the bloody civil war, but warned against “simple solutions”.
HANOVER, Germany, Sunday
US President Barack Obama arrived on a valedictory visit to Germany on Sunday to see his “friend” Chancellor Angela Merkel, but their show of unity looked unlikely to silence opposition to their push for a transatlantic trade pact.
Mr Obama jetted into the northern city of Hanover from London, where he warned on Sunday that it would be a “mistake” to send Western troops into Syria and cautioned Britain on reduced global influence should it quit the EU.
While his fifth and final official trip to Europe’s biggest economy is expected to cover global crises, one of the headline goals is to advance negotiations on what could become the world’s biggest free trade agreement.
Both sides say they aim to see the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) finalised, at least in its broad outlines, before Obama leaves office in January.
However Ms Merkel’s Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel cast doubt on those ambitions today, warning the deal “will fail” if the United States refuses to make concessions in the protracted talks.
BUY AMERICAN IDEA
“The Americans want to hold fast to their ‘Buy American’ idea. We can’t accept that. They don’t want to open their public tenders to European companies.
For me, that goes against free trade,” Gabriel, a Social Democrat who is also Germany’s deputy chancellor, told business newspaper Handelsblatt. His comments came a day after tens of thousands of people marched against the US-EU free trade deal through the streets of Hanover, where Obama and Merkel are to open what is billed as the world’s largest industrial technology fair on Sunday night.
Before he left for Germany, Mr Obama told the BBC the United States would continue efforts to broker a transition deal between the Syrian regime and its moderate opponents to end the bloody civil war, but warned against “simple solutions”.
“It would be a mistake for the United States, or Great Britain, or a combination of Western states to send in ground troops and overthrow the Assad regime,” he said.
Rather, he called for “international pressure” on “all the parties, including Russia and Iran, who, essentially, are propping up Assad”.
In the same interview, Obama reiterated his warnings about a so-called Brexit, saying “Britain would have “less influence globally” if it voted to leave the European Union in June.
