The recent protests of thousands of people marching in Berlin, Munich and other German cities against a free trade deal between Europe and the United States don’t seem to faze David O’Sullivan, the European Union’s ambassador to the United States, in this Global Atlanta audio interview.
Mr. O’Sullivan told Ralitsa Vassileva, who conducted the interview on April 22, that until a text for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP), which currently is being written by European and U.S. negotiators, is published, the protestors merely “speculate and fantasize” about its contents.
The ambassador indicated that once the protestors see the full text, they should be appeased and confident that neither side wants to undermine established health, environmental, labor or consumer-safety standards.
Mr. O’Sullivan was in Atlanta to speak at the Georgia Institute of Technology and to participate in a wide variety of meetings with local civic and business officials.
During this portion of the interview, Mr. O’Sullivan also discussed the protections that the treaty will provide companies investing across the Atlantic and the European Union’s growing involvement in Asia with the EU’s support of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and its ongoing investments in China, Japan and the ASEAN countries.
Click here to read an article or listen to the ambassador discuss Europe’s challenges dealing with Mediterranean migration issues.
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