Is this more fallout from the revelations that the NSA was spying on its friends like Angela Merkel and her government?
Germany is to reject a multibillion-dollar free trade deal between the European Union and Canada which is widely seen as a template for a bigger agreement with the United States, a leading German paper reported on Saturday.
Citing diplomats in Brussels, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that Berlin objects to clauses outlining the legal protection offered to firms investing in the 28-member bloc. Critics say they could allow investors to stop or reverse laws.
(For more on that particular "toxic mechanism" of the TTIP, the investor-state dispute settlement, see
here.)
For the TTIP, the omens now look downright fatal:
The German government could not sign the agreement with Canada "as it has been negotiated now," the paper reported, quoting German diplomats in Brussels.
It also said that the clauses in the Canada deal were similar to those in the U.S. agreement, which is still under negotiation.
"The free trade treaty with Canada is a test for the agreement with the United States," said one senior official at the Commission in Brussels, according to the paper.
If the deal with Canada is rejected "then the one with the United States is also dead", added the official....
All 28 members of the EU have to sign the agreement for it to take effect.
Yet another reason, perhaps, to thank Edward Snowden and the great public service he's done for his fellow citizens?....