US-EU Free Trade Agreement

choi

Ships That Pass in the Night; A trade deal with America would be good for everybody, yet it still may not happen. Economist, Dec 13, 2014.
www.economist.com/news/europe/21 ... t-happen-ships-pass

Quote:

(a) "LIFE for modern Europeans is marked by endless hardships, not least their inability to buy Hog Island oysters. Farmed in a bay north of San Francisco, these plump, succulent specimens rival anything in Normandy or the Languedoc. Yet there is no transatlantic trade in oysters to speak of. Why? Because of incompatible safety regimes: America tests oyster waters for bacteria while the European Union examines the molluscs themselves. Both methods are sound, but neither side recognises the other’s.

"The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), an ambitious planned trade deal between America and the EU, is intended to iron out such wrinkles. Unlike classic free-trade arrangements, TTIP focuses on regulatory and other non-tariff barriers, because levies on most products traded across the Atlantic are already close to zero (exceptions include running shoes and fancy chocolate).

(b) "It involves neither the political agony of structural reforms nor more public spending.

(c) "TTIP is less of a priority for the Obama administration than the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade deal it is pursuing with 11 Asian-Pacific countries. * * * Europe drags its feet [on TTIP] * * * 'Quite frankly, we’re puzzled why Europe isn’t gagging for this [TTIP],' says one American official.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.

(b) Regarding the title.
(i) like ships that pass in the night: "If two people are like ships that pass in the night, they meet once or twice by chance for a short time then do not see each other again"
dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/british/like-ships-that-pass-in-the-night
(ii) ships that pass in the night (etymology)
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ships_that_pass_in_the_night

(c) "it [TTIP] would cement the transatlantic relationship just as Europeans are getting twitchy about Russia"
(i) twitchy (adj): "nervous, worried, and ill-at-ease"
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/twitchy
(ii) Its original meaning appears as the sole definition in

twitchy (adj): "making jerky or restless movements"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/twitchy

(d) be gagging for or be gagging to "(slang) to be very eager to have or do something"
www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/be-gagging-for

(e) "Surprisingly, opposition is strongest in Germany, not previously a bastion of anti-trade activists. For much of the year it has focused on Chlorhühnchen (chlorine-soaked chicken), an example of the horrors that TTIP’s opponents say would be forced down European throats if doors were opened to American products."
(i) European Activists Say They Don't Want Any US 'Chlorine Chicken.' NPR, Sept 30, 2014
www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/0 ... -s-chlorine-chicken
(“Mute Schimpf doesn't want to eat American chicken. That's because most U.S. poultry is chilled in antimicrobial baths that can include chlorine to keep salmonella and other bacteria in check. In Europe, chlorine treatment was banned in the 1990s out of fear that it could cause cancer”)

There is no need to read the rest of the NPR report, which after the first paragraph talks about other aspects of TTIP negotiations.
(ii) German English dictionary
* Chlor (noun neuter): "chlorine"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Chlor
* Huhn (noun neuter): "chicken"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Huhn
* Hühnchen (noun neuter): “chicken meat"
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hühnchen