The chief European Union negotiator on a major trade deal with the United States says the proposal is not an attempt to deregulate health, safety, and finances.
The EU's Ignacio Garcia Bercero spoke with journalists in Washington Friday at the end of the third round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Some critics of proposed trade deals between the United States and many other nations accuse Washington of trying to use trade talks as a stealthy way of cutting regulations that are disliked by business interests, such as protections for labor rights.
Bercero says the complex deal under consideration instead upholds the highest standards of consumer, environmental and other protections.
U.S. negotiator Dan Mullaney says the two sides are working as quickly as they can to craft a deal that actually boosts trade, economic growth and jobs. He says the United States and the European Union already have nearly $4 trillion invested in each other's economies, and exchange almost $3 billion a day in trade.
