白宫为美欧贸易谈判做最后努力

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.

尽管欧洲的政治反对日益强烈，但奥巴马政府发起最后努力，希望在届满之前挽救旨在建立跨大西洋自由贸易区的谈判。

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.

虽然华盛顿方面在研究作出哪些妥协让谈判获得新的生命力，但美国首席谈判代表承认，英国公投退欧等因素减小了谈判成功的前景。

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

美国贸易代表迈克•弗罗曼(Mike Froman)表示，华盛顿方面仍致力于在今年达成所谓《跨大西洋贸易与投资伙伴关系协定》(TTIP)。

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

他坚称，于2013年7月发起的谈判仍在取得进展，尽管欧洲的一些部长级官员发出了一系列质疑言论。

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.

我们从（欧盟）成员国获得的清晰信息是，尽管出现了近期这些言论，但各方仍明确希望推进谈判，他说。

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

你距离谈判越近，就越有信心认为，谈判事实上在取得进展。

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.

这个夏季，美国官员们起草了一揽子妥协提议，这些将成为周四弗罗曼与欧盟贸易专员塞西莉亚•马姆斯特罗姆(Cecilia Malmström)会谈的中心议题。

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.

尽管德国总理安格拉•默克尔(Angela Merkel)等欧盟领导人近来表达了对谈判的支持，但法国和德国的资深部长级官员呼吁暂停谈判。

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.

这些质疑言论，加上美国总统竞选中日益浓厚的反贸易措辞，使人们质疑协议能否在明年1月美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)下台之前达成？之后的谈判会有什么未来？

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.

突显TTIP面临棘手路径的一个迹象是，弗罗曼也质疑，主导与美方谈判的欧盟委员会(European Commission)能否做出达成协议所需的艰难决定。

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

我们说，是的，我们准备推进，他说。

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

我们做好了完成谈判的准备，拿出了这些计划，这些能带来结果的有意义计划。

Are you?

你们呢？

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.

他说，其他挑战包括今年早些时候欧盟与加拿大之间达成的一项协议将必须得到欧盟全部28个成员国议会的批准，这将让未来欧洲所有的贸易谈判变得复杂化。