(31.5.2018) What is already clear is that the age of global free trading blocs that appeared on the horizon during the Obama years appears to be over as far as the United States is concerned. The much vaunted Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which would have seen the EU and NAFTA create a free trading mega-zone is now all but dead as Washington and Brussels continue to threaten each other with more trading barriers.