白宮爲美歐貿易談判做最後努力

The Obama administration is launching a final push to salvage negotiations on a transatlantic free trade zone before it leaves office — despite growing political opposition in Europe.

儘管歐洲的政治反對日益強烈，但奧巴馬政府發起最後努力，希望在屆滿之前挽救旨在建立跨大西洋自由貿易區的談判。

While Washington has been working on compromises to give new life to the talks, the top US negotiator admitted that the prospects of success were hit by factors such as Britain’s vote to exit the EU.

雖然華盛頓方面在研究作出哪些妥協讓談判獲得新的生命力，但美國首席談判代表承認，英國公投退歐等因素減小了談判成功的前景。

Mike Froman, US trade representative, said Washington remained comm-itted to concluding the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership this year.

美國貿易代表邁克•弗羅曼(Mike Froman)表示，華盛頓方面仍致力於在今年達成所謂《跨大西洋貿易與投資夥伴關係協定》(TTIP)。

He insisted the talks, launched in July 2013, continued to make progress, despite a series of sceptical comments by European ministers.

他堅稱，於2013年7月發起的談判仍在取得進展，儘管歐洲的一些部長級官員發出了一系列質疑言論。

The clear message we are getting from [EU] members is that, notwithstanding these [recent] comments there is a clear desire to keep moving forward, he said.

我們從（歐盟）成員國獲得的清晰信息是，儘管出現了近期這些言論，但各方仍明確希望推進談判，他說。

And the closer you are to negotiations the more confident you are that in fact negotiations are moving forward.

你距離談判越近，就越有信心認爲，談判事實上在取得進展。

US officials have spent the summer drafting a proposed package of compromises that will be at the centre of talks between Mr Froman and his EU counterpart, Cecilia Malmström, in Brussels on Thursday.

這個夏季，美國官員們起草了一攬子妥協提議，這些將成爲週四弗羅曼與歐盟貿易專員塞西莉亞•馬姆斯特羅姆(Cecilia Malmström)會談的中心議題。

Although European leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel have in recent days expressed support for the negotiations, senior ministers in both France and Germany have called for the talks to be suspended.

儘管德國總理安格拉•默克爾(Angela Merkel)等歐盟領導人近來表達了對談判的支持，但法國和德國的資深部長級官員呼籲暫停談判。

Such comments, together with mounting antitrade rhetoric in the US presidential campaign, have raised doubts over whether any deal can be concluded before President Barack Obama leaves office in January and what future any talks would have after that.

這些質疑言論，加上美國總統競選中日益濃厚的反貿易措辭，使人們質疑協議能否在明年1月美國總統巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)下臺之前達成？之後的談判會有什麼未來？

In a sign of the difficult path TTIP faces, Mr Froman also questioned whether the European Commission, which has been leading the talks with the US, could make the hard decisions needed to conclude a deal.

突顯TTIP面臨棘手路徑的一個跡象是，弗羅曼也質疑，主導與美方談判的歐盟委員會(European Commission)能否做出達成協議所需的艱難決定。

We’re saying: OK, we’re ready to go, he said.

我們說，是的，我們準備推進，他說。

We’re ready to get in that end game, create these packages, these meaningful packages of outcomes.

我們做好了完成談判的準備，拿出了這些計劃，這些能帶來結果的有意義計劃。

Are you?

你們呢？

Among the additional challenges, he said, was a ruling earlier this year that a deal struck by the EU with Canada would have to be ratified by parliaments in all 28 EU states, which would complicate all future European trade talks.

他說，其他挑戰包括今年早些時候歐盟與加拿大之間達成的一項協議將必須得到歐盟全部28個成員國議會的批准，這將讓未來歐洲所有的貿易談判變得複雜化。