US commerce secretary: US, Europe should have trade accord
BERLIN — U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Tuesday that the United States and the European Union should have a free trade agreement, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for work on such an accord to resume.
President Donald Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from an agreement with nations around the Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but the fate of a proposed trade deal with the EU has been less clear. Merkel vowed recently not to give up on that accord, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Ross told a conference in Berlin attended by Merkel that the U.S. had made a “conscious decision not to walk away from TTIP” when it ditched the Pacific accord. That, he said, signalled Washington’s receptiveness to trade negotiations with Europe.
“I stand before you tonight to say this in a more explicit fashion: we, as major trading partners of each other, should have a free trade agreement,” Ross said. He addressed the event, organized by a group linked to Merkel’s party, by video link after cancelling a trip to Berlin on short notice.