“No masterpiece” that the EU has bent: in Brussels there is criticism about the EU inch deal with the USA. Commission chief of the Leyen are imminent. There is cautious support from your own party.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is facing stormy times. Your ambitious medium-term EU financial plan is encountered by many heads of government. And now there is a risk of trading policy in the customs deal with US President Donald Trump.
The Leyen also has to be prepared for a lot of criticism. Even with the European Christian Democrats, it rumbles after their meeting with Trump and an agreement that is supposed to contain the risk of a trade war, but could lead to new injustices.
“Preparation of the previous customs duties”
The deal creates security in uncertain times, the EU head of commission justified her procedure. Bernd Lange, the head of the trade committee in the EU Parliament, is not convinced of the results. He spoke of a deal with a list, “no masterpiece”. The concessions to the Americans are difficult to bear, the SPD politician said.
“15 percent on imports, for example, means a quadruple of the previous customs dates, in return all US imports should be placed in the EU to zero,” said the EU trade policy. This imbalance affects the EU’s competitiveness.
Depending on the USA Armor technology?
But other parts of the agreement also consider it questionable for a long time. An additional 600 billion, which the EU is to be invested in the United States, did not ensure safe jobs in Europe, he said. All in all, this is an action against European interests.
The strong dependence on US armor technology is called a reason for the weak negotiating position of the Europeans – which could now be reinforced.
Left complain about the EU
Martin Schirdewan, leader of the Left Group in the EU Parliament, also spoke of a kinking of the EU Commission: While Trump will take billions of dollars more with this deal, the EU Commission endangers a thousand jobs in Europe.
Anna Cavazzini, Commercial Spokeswoman for the Greens in the European Parliament, spoke of an extremely unequal agreement with the United States if all EU exports are occupied with an additional customs rate of 15 percent, but the steel and aluminum tariffs remain at 50 percent. In addition, the EU must get involved in long-term import contracts from extremely climate-damaging LNG gas from the USA.
Cavazzini says from the Leyen a harder line against Trump. It was ultimately slowed down by the federal government. This is the only way to have Trump’s extortion method, complained about the Greens politician.
Criticism: Dulgered violation of fair world trade
But there are also concerns in the strongest faction in the European Parliament. A one-sided base tariff of 15 percent is a blatant violation of the principles of a fair world trade and a difficult blow against European competitiveness, warned a spokesman for the EPP parliamentary group, which also includes the CDU and CSU.
However, there are also other voices that indicate the possible advantages: on the one hand, a trade war has been prevented from the disadvantage of both sides. In this context, the CDU European politician Daniel Caspary spoke of a manageable solution.
The 15 percent basic customs are annoying and superfluous, but they would not break the neck of the German providers: “It is good that this agreement has at least some predictability for German and European industry,” said Caspary (CDU).
Auto tariffs sink
The tariffs make European products more expensive in the United States. This would primarily meet Trump’s own consumers and thus his own voters in the United States. But here – at least with the cars from the EU – some things could get cheaper. The Leyen referred to the current customs set of 27.5 percent, which is due on EU cars as a customs when importing into the USA-here too the 15 percent customs set should apply.
The reactions make it clear: Ursula von der Leyen will not only get praise for her step. However, she herself indicated that the relationships between the two sides remain more than tense. The EU will make itself more independently of the USA and look for other partners, she explained – and called Indonesia, the Mercosur countries and India as examples.
