NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. and European trade negotiators said on Friday that the looming referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union was not affecting their talks towards reaching a sweeping trans-Atlantic free trade deal.
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Daniel Mullaney and European Commission negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero told reporters that they are not considering implications of the June 23 vote as they try to reach a deal between the world's two largest trading blocs.
"The Brexit referendum is having no effect on our current negotiations," Mullaney said. "What we're doing now is we're very focussed on achieving the best, most ambitious, comprehensive agreement that we can."