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Some folks in Europe – farmers, consumer groups, enviros, privacy advocates and others – have strongly opposed  the U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that’s now being negotiated.

Opposition in France and Italy had been strong. And now it seems the Germans are looking increasingly askance at the treaty. But the Obama administration,free-trade and business groups are pushing hard for an agreement.

So the U.S. embassy in Berlin is enlisting treaty-supporting Germans – even offering cold, hard cash.

“Are you pro-TTIP and angry at the negative coverage it’s been getting? Send us your ideas and we’ll support you!” the embassy, or “Botschaft,” said in a tweet in German on Friday:     

That’s right, the embassy’s public affairs section has launched project “T-TIP: Get Informed! Get Involved.” The section is “soliciting proposals” and offering grants of between $5,000 and $20,000 to German non-profits, “non-governmental organizations, think tanks and academic institutions” to get out the real “facts and figures” and to “combat misinformation.”