U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said this week that the United States and the European Union need to speed up talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) to finish before President Barack Obama leaves office in January 2017. Froman made these remarks while in London on his way to meetings in Brussels with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.

“Let me just say, we’ve been at this now for about two-and-a-half years, in earnest,” Froman said in remarks in London at Chatham House, an international affairs think tank. “We have made good and steady progress during this period, but if we’re going to get it done in this window of opportunity, we need to see accelerated progress.”

 The two sides have held 11 rounds on TTIP since talks began in mid-2013, with the next round expected in late January or early February.  After the last round in Miami, business groups expressed frustration with the slow pace.  “More than two years into the negotiations, repeated expressions of political support have not thus far translated into visible and tangible progress at the negotiating table,” Garrett Workman, director of European affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a blog. “We urged both parties to move beyond traditional negotiating tactics and jointly take the bold steps needed to secure a world class trade agreement.”