TTIP or TTTF? Why the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership will most likely become a trade treaty too far

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership has become the new trade game for the European Union institutions. The players seem however to have neglected an important fact. Since the ratification of the Marrakech Agreements in 1994, all big trade treaties have failed. This applies to the Doha Development Round of course, but also to the OECD Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).A serious trade strategy should be less grand-standing and more concrete. This however does not look probable.