U.S. and EU trade officials will meet in Brussels on Thursday local time to salvage stalled negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

According to the British "Guardian" report on the 15th, this meeting will be regarded as a "stock take" of the negotiations over the past three years. The meeting was between EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.

However, some analysts pointed out that given that TTIP negotiations have been stalled for several months, and some EU officials have even publicly stated that the negotiations have "failed," Thursday's meeting may be just an attempt to "save face."

TTIP is the European twin brother of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which reached a basic agreement in Atlanta on October 5 last year. The two aim to build two new free trade alliances and further eliminate existing investment and trade barriers. TTIP was launched in mid-2013 and includes 29 countries in the European Union and the United States.

Another free trade agreement similar to TTIP is the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada. Negotiations on the agreement ended in August 2014, but then entered a lengthy 28-country approval process. The agreement will be debated in the French parliament in Strasbourg next month, but the Guardian said that protests launched by people in Germany, France and Finland may derail the final agreement. Taking this as a lesson, as a protocol with similar controversies but with higher attention, the future of TTIP is not bright.

Last month, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that in his opinion, "negotiations with the United States have essentially failed, but no one has acknowledged it." ”

In the past three years of difficult negotiations, TTIP has encountered strong opposition from the EU public, with protests in Berlin last October attracting hundreds of thousands of people. Opponents argue that the deal would allow U.S. companies access to the EU's public sector and that a special dispute settlement mechanism in the deal could allow companies to sue governments. In addition, they are worried that the agreement will trigger a wave of unemployment in the EU, lower the EU's food and environmental safety standards, and relax the protection of personal privacy rights.

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In the United States, TTIP has also become the focus of anti-global trade protesters. Both US Republican nominee Trump and his opponent Hillary have accused the global trade agreements promoted by the Obama administration of damaging employment and lowering wages for the American people.

But at a time when the EU economy is weak, some EU officials believe that TTIP can help harmonize regulatory rules and make it easier to export goods and services, thereby helping the EU's economic recovery. The Guardian quoted a European Commission spokesperson as saying, “Since the beginning of this year, negotiators from both sides have stepped up contact, both at the technical and political levels. ”

However, according to Jude Kirton-Darling, a member of the European Parliament’s Trade Committee and a member of the British Labor Party, the political struggle facing CETA has heralded the end of TTIP.

“TTIP (negotiations) have been stalled for months, and (Thursday's) meeting is purely about saving face for the United States and the European Union. "Attention in European politics is now really focused on the final stages of the EU-Canada CETA deal," she said. "(CETA) has not come under much public scrutiny so far, but many of the same concerns (as TTIP) have arisen around standards, public services and the rule of law." ”

“The high-profile public statements made by EU leaders, and their opposition to TTIP in recent weeks, can only be understood in the context of growing public dissatisfaction with the CETA agreement,' she added. 'If ending TTIP can get a majority of people to support CETA, then the life support of TTIP will be turned off. ”