BERLIN: A European free trade deal with the United States may not be perfect but is the last chance for Europe to remain globally relevant, Germany’s economy minister said on Friday.

Sigmar Gabriel’s comments, made a day before his party decides its line on the negotiations, echoed those of Chancellor Angela Merkel, also on Friday, who said a deal would be of “unimaginable value” and no “red lines” would be crossed.

The public debate in Europe’s largest exporter has been firmly against a free trade deal between Brussels and Washington called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), with concerns ranging from health and safety to spying.

“I think it is normal that the rules will not be optimal in the beginning, that there will be a lot to criticise,” Gabriel said. “I do not know if TTIP will succeed but ... one has to know that Europe only has one chance to start to talk about these things and that’s now.”

Gabriel added that if Europe failed to agree a deal with the United States, Washington would turn elsewhere in search of a partner, such as Asia.

“And such a deal would have very different rules to what we are imagining now,” said Gabriel, who is economy minister and head of the Social Democrats, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partner in parliament.

The Social Democrats will decide on Saturday on a motion brought by Gabriel in support of TTIP. The talks are hotly contested in the party.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2014