France's Hollande joins chorus of pessimism on EU-US trade deal

Paris (dpa) - French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday became the latest European leader to speak out against the free trade agreement known as TTIP, saying talks would not meet their deadline."Negotiations have stalled," he said. "The imbalance is obvious."Hollande‘s comments come after France‘s minister of state for trade had said that Paris would request in the coming months that the European Commission stop negotiations on the trade deal."There is no longer any political support from France for these negotiations," said Matthias Fekl on French radio station RMC.The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US would create the world‘s largest free trade area, but it has been plagued by criticism on both sides of the Atlantic.TTIP negotiations have been ongoing for more than three years, with both sides aiming to reach the outlines of an agreement before 2017, when US President Barack Obama leaves office and both France and Germany gear up for elections.German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel kicked off the latest round of criticism in an interview Sunday, saying that the talks had "effectively failed."German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was also less than optimistic, saying to business interests at a conference Tuesday that he wasn‘t expecting much movement on the talks in light of the US elections in November and the presidential candidates‘ statements.US Trade Representative Michael Froman criticized Gabriel‘s comments as naive, according to German newspaper Der Spiegel on Tuesday. He said that negotiations were continuing to progress and that it was no surprise that certain parts of the deal have yet to be finalized.