In terms of content, there is still no progress in the customs dispute between the EU and the USA. The European Union remains hard in the trade talks, even if it signals here and there.
This time it went quickly: After only one weekend, June 1st, announced by US President Donald Trump, was off the table for the 50 percent tariffs. This remains as usual with the customs conflict with the EU: now July 9 is again the end of the period to which Trump’s original threats should come true from the beginning of April – if the ongoing negotiations fail.
After all, many details of the negotiations are unclear, it is clear that the EU relies on hardness. Similar to China, Europeans throw their economic weight into the balance and essentially reject the US demands – albeit in more reserved tone. The EU neither accepts the ten percent tariffs as a new lower limit, nor is the Commission ready to negotiate it to compensate for food standards or to weaken EU digital laws.
Trump’s “Art of the Deal”, the Haudrauf tactics in negotiations, is objectively classified in Brussels. It is part of his staging that there is always a lot of “theater Donner”, explained the chairman of the trade committee in the European Parliament, Bernd Lange (SPD), in the common morning magazine by ARD and ZDF. Trump’s principle is: “approach high to achieve something less”.
The escalation from the weekend, part of Trump’s trial tactic towards strong opponents, is reminiscent of the hard worsening of the US Chinese conflict, which soon resulted in a de-escalation. In Brussels, it is also likely to be noted that Trump’s maximum threats are increasingly wearing out in view of his regularly back.
New Negotiating round from today
The EU insists on its line that it is by no means “unfair” and that customs threats from Washington are “completely unjustified”. The goal remains to get off the table that is imposed by Trump and threatened and threatened, said Lange, who today travels to Washington with an EU delegation.
With a view to Trump’s threats, he said that he would not expect Trump to give them up completely. You don’t want escalation. But if Trump stays with tariffs of ten to 25 percent, there will also be counter-duties on US goods. These could make US products worth more than 100 billion euros.
Concrete offers of the EU
The EU negotiators show the EU’s negotiators at Trump’s basic problem, the outgoing US trade deficit. According to information from the trading sheet, there are already three specific offers on the table. On the one hand, the Europeans agree to buy more liquid gas (LNG) from the USA. In addition, tariffs for industrial goods, cars and certain agricultural products are to be reduced and so -called non -tariffs such as product registration procedures are to be reduced.
There are also additional purchases from chips for artificial intelligence, a common approach to Chinese overcapacity and more cooperation in investment and export controls.
A final agreement, however, as in the other large trade conflicts initiated by Trump, still seems to be a long way off.
