Angela Merkel says spy scandal is testing EU-US trade talks

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the National Security Agencyspying scandal was putting pressure on talks to forge an EU-US trade pact, in the clearest sign yet of the affair’s impact on economic ties.

Speaking before the German parliament, Chancellor Merkel urged Washington to provide “a clarification” of its alleged mass surveillance as “a basis for building new transatlantic trust.” In her toughest words on the scandal so far, the chancellor said: “The relationship with the US and the negotiation of a transatlantic free trade agreement are currently, without doubt, being put to the test by the accusations that have been aired against the US about the gathering of millions of bits of data.”


Angela Merkel says spy scandal is testing EU-US trade talks