A senior German official has recently opined that the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union have de factor failed as they have failed to agree on fundamental issues such as regulatory harmonization and investor state dispute settlement (ISDS).

Both TPP and TTIP are important tools for the US to restructure the global trade and investment system and the same can be regarded as a strategy. If both of them are running into troubles, this could be a good news to China which has been excluded from both TPP and TTIP and thus saving China from the pressure brought by them.