BERLIN (Reuters) - A European free trade deal with the United States may not be perfect but is the last chance for Europe to remain globally relevant, Germany's economy minister said on Friday.
Sigmar Gabriel's comments, made a day before his party decides its line on the negotiations, echoed those of Chancellor Angela Merkel, also on Friday, who said a deal would be of "unimaginable value" and no "red lines" would be crossed.
The public debate in Europe's largest exporter has been firmly against a free trade deal between Brussels and Washington called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), with concerns ranging from health and safety to spying.
"I think it is normal that the rules will not be optimal in the beginning, that there will be a lot to criticize," Gabriel said. "I do not know if TTIP will succeed but ... one has to know that Europe only has one chance to start to talk about these things and that's now."
Gabriel added that if Europe failed to agree a deal with the United States, Washington would turn elsewhere in search of a partner, such as Asia.
"And such a deal would have very different rules to what we are imagining now," said Gabriel, who is economy minister and head of the Social Democrats, Chancellor Angela Merkel's junior coalition partner in parliament.
The Social Democrats will decide on Saturday on a motion brought by Gabriel in support of TTIP. The talks are hotly contested in the party.
"CHLORINE CHICKEN"
Concerns among Germans range from a lack of transparency in the way the negotiations are led - a factor Gabriel acknowledged - to fears that health and safety standards of food could be compromised in a potential deal.
Amplified by Germany's Green party and an organic food trend, "Chlorhuenchen" (chlorine chicken) has become emblematic of Germans' aversion to a deal with Washington. The idea that the U.S. technique of disinfecting chicken with chlorine might be introduced in Europe has alarmed Germans and highlights their wider suspicion about an accord.
Gabriel said that was also a result of the EU Commission's lack of transparency in its negotiations.
"You must not be surprised that we now have a climate of negotiations where every crazy person can introduce crazy projections into the talks," Gabriel said. "I mean for months the debate was dominated by chlorine chickens."
German aversions also include worries about a dispute-solving mechanism which allows firms to bring claims against a country if it breaches the trade treaty.
On top of that, Berlin-Washington relations have suffered from a lingering spying row stemming from revelations by the former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowdon that Washington had bugged Merkel's telephone.
(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt; Editing by Tom Heneghan)