France Fumes Over Leaked Documents on Transatlantic Trade Deal Talks

France Fumes Over Leaked Documents on Transatlantic Trade Deal Talks
By Fayçal Benhassain | May 5, 2016 | 8:08 PM EDT

Opponents of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership protest during a European Union summit in Brussels last October (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
Paris (CNSNews.com) – The leaking of hundreds of pages of negotiating texts for an ambitious U.S.-European Union free-trade agreement is continuing to make waves in France and elsewhere in Europe, just days after President Obama expressed confidence that a deal – a key goal of his administration – is within reach.
Already skeptical politicians and others see the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) documents leaked by the environmental group Greenpeace as confirming fears that the agreement would not be good for Europe.
French President Francois Hollande responded to the leaks by saying he would not support the TTIP as it stands.
The minister responsible for foreign trade and France’s representative in the negotiations, Mathias Fekl, stated that a decision to stop the negotiations was the only option at this stage.
“No agreement can be taken without France and much less against France,” he said, in reference to the fact all 28 E.U. members will have to support the final deal before it can enter into force.
First announced in June 2013, the TTIP aims to turn the U.S. and E.U. into the largest free-trade area in the world. In France it is often known as the Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA).
The 248 pages of confidential documents leaked this week provide a glimpse of the current status of the secretive talks between European and American negotiators. Among other details, the secret memo reveals that Americans are pushing to increase oil and gas exploration through the process of fracking and other methods.
Fracking is banned in France, Germany and several other European countries.
Other aspects of the negotiations not acceptable for the French include issues in the agricultural sector. France does not want American wine producers to use names of famous French wine regions, such as Champagne, Bourgogne and Chablis for their products.
French farmers and officials are also against genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which are forbidden in France. European regulations on such products are stricter than those in the U.S., and the leaked documents suggest huge disagreements between the E.U. – mainly France – and the U.S. on these matters.
Greenpeace France managing director Jean-François Julliard said in a television interview that the documents “confirmed what [critics] feared.”
“The treaty will put the interests of big business and trade before environmental and health concerns,” he said, giving as an example U.S. proposals to increase the import to Europe of hormone-fed beef and pork products.
On a visit to Germany late last month, Obama was greeted by anti-TTIP protests and in a joint press conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced strong support for the deal, saying that “the E.U. and the United States must press ahead with the TTIP.”
Merkel, too, expressed support, saying the deal “is good for the German economy, which is good for the whole European economy as well” – although German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel sounded far more dubious.
Just after the negotiations started in 2013, around 100 French celebrities, including actors, writers and musicians launched a campaign against the TTIP, arguing that it would lower economic standards and allow the entry of GMO products from the U.S.
The TTIP does have supporters in France, however.
Last month MEDEF, a lobbying network for 750,000 companies, organized a conference on the “myths” and “reality” of the agreement, with politicians and business people on both sides of the argument invited to take part.
The U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Michael Punke, was also invited to speak in support of the TTIP.
In general MEDEF and its members see the deal as an opportunity for French businesses to get into the U.S. market. They also say it will help raise growth and employment in the country, at a time when the European economy remains weak. 
Many TTIP critics here are waiting to see what further information emerges from the talks – there have been 14 rounds of negotiations so far.
But it seems clear their struggle against the deal will pick up steam as more details are revealed.
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