The Bundestag is expected to approve the free trade agreement with Canada. FDP Vice Vogel calls for a deal to be made with the USA as well. The revival of the once failed TTIP agreement is "exactly the right signal".
The deputy FDP chairman, Johannes Vogel, has spoken out in favor of reacting to the US government's foreclosure measures with a new attempt at a free trade agreement. "That's exactly the answer," said Vogel in ntv's "early start". It is an approach to reacting to the current challenges in a protectionist manner, "or we say: The free world is doing this together and in a coordinated manner." He advocates coordinated action by the West. A comeback of the failed TTIP agreement with the USA is the goal of the federal government. "I think that's the right signal."
Vogel praised the likely ratification of the CETA free trade agreement with Canada in the Bundestag. "If we take the view that we were too dependent on Russian gas, that we are too dependent on the Chinese market, the only way to make up for that is to do more free trade with the free world."
For the European Union, Vogel expects CETA to increase prosperity in the hundreds of billions. Together with a new attempt at a free trade agreement with the USA and the fastest possible ratification of agreements with Mexico and Chile, there is a whole "free trade agenda". "This is economic policy that costs nothing."
The FDP politician countered criticism of CETA from social organizations and climate protection groups. "The idea that we could even do free trade with anyone if we can't do it with Canada - a country where we are so united on fundamental values - I think is absurd." Only in Germany has investment protection been discussed as a problem in agreements such as CETA or TTIP. "It would be fatal if we stayed on this special path."
