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Angela Merkel

BERLIN. — US President Barack Obama arrived on a valedictory visit to Germany yesterday to see his “friend” Chancellor Angela Merkel, but their show of unity looked unlikely to silence opposition to their push for a transatlantic trade pact.

Obama jetted into the northern city of Hanover from London, where he warned Sunday that it would be a “mistake” to send Western troops into Syria and cautioned Britain on reduced global influence should it quit the EU. While his fifth and final official trip to Europe’s biggest economy is expected to cover global crises, one of the headline goals is to advance negotiations on what could become the world’s biggest free trade agreement. Both sides say they aim to see the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) finalised, at least in its broad outlines, before Obama leaves office in January.

However Merkel’s Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel cast doubt on those ambitions Sunday, warning the deal “will fail” if the United States refuses to make concessions in the protracted talks.

“The Americans want to hold fast to their ‘Buy American’ idea. We can’t accept that. They don’t want to open their public tenders to European companies. For me, that goes against free trade,” Gabriel, a Social Democrat who is also Germany’s deputy chancellor, told business newspaper Handelsblatt. — AFP.