“It doesn’t mean the death of TTIP,” stressed European Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom when pushed by reporters on whether or not the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership would be completed by the end of 2016. The deal, pushed hard by the likes of Barack Obama, Jean-Claude Juncker, David Cameron, and Hillary Clinton is looking less and less likely to be completed after another round of talks stalled over U.S. protectionism and European populist concerns over regulation and investment settlement. But the wider implications are huge. When a European Commissioner has to insist that a key policy is not dead – you can bet it is at best on life support. “We will do our utmost to get this done,” Ms. Malmstrom insisted at a conference in Stockholm this week. “[But] if this is not possible for different reasons, it is not in anybody’s interest to declare, ‘Rest in peace and go on.’” “It doesn’t mean the death of TTIP; it means delay of TTIP. How long, impossible to say,” she said. The news should impact Britain’s European Union membership referendum debate too. Less than two months ago U.S. President Barack Obama flew to Britain to insist that the United Kingdom would