Concerns over globalization are crystalizing in many developed economies in the form of opposition to trade agreements.  One of the largest, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union and the United States, is currently in the firing line.  Many commentators have now declared the entire exercise dead-on-arrival.  Such a dismissal is perhaps too hasty.  In spite of strong headwinds, trade officials have continued to press ahead, hoping to lock in as much progress as possible in 2016.  As an earlier blog post noted, TTIP is perhaps the most difficult trade agreement attempted.  Given relatively open levels of trade between the two parties, both sides are attempting to address thorny sensitive issues that have not been previously tackled and to try to sort out tough new areas of conflicting standards and regulations.