The phrase "a protracted negotiation" is correct and commonly used in written English.
It refers to a negotiation or discussion that has been ongoing for a long period of time and has not yet been resolved or finalized. Example: "The two countries have been engaged in a protracted negotiation over trade tariffs for over a year now, with no end in sight."
What followed was a protracted negotiation.
The plan, still being shopped to state and city legislators, remains tentative and subject to the ever-present whims that can accompany a protracted negotiation involving powerful industry leaders and politicians.
Diplomats in Kabul said they saw the $3bn US figure as an opening offer in what it is likely to be a protracted negotiation leading up to the Nato summit in Chicago.
Polk's decision was based on his concern that a protracted negotiation by US commissioners would expose annexation efforts to foreign intrigue and interference.
A protracted negotiation over the terms follows.
Officials at the Taxi and Limousine Commission, facing a protracted negotiation with the notoriously feisty yellow cab industry, are reluctant to discuss their strategy publicly.
After protracted negotiation, the two girls left the group.
"I'd say, in the long run, it's worth the protracted negotiation".
But the (then) EEC responded to this event in a pragmatic manner, enabling a united Germany to become a member without protracted negotiations.
And the US followed this diplomatic coup with an even greater one, bringing to a successful conclusion protracted negotiations on Iran's nuclear programme.
However, the apparently successful disentanglement of Islamist militancy from a concomitant Tuareg rebellion – following protracted negotiations, peace-signing ceremonies in May and June, ceasefire violations and hours of discussions by robed men over cups of mint tea – could mark an important breakthrough.
