After China, Europe. Donald Trump, on Wednesday, January 22, brandished the tariff threat to force the European Union (EU) to sign a trade agreement. "If we cannot conclude (…) we will have to put a 25% tax on their cars ", he said in an interview on the American chain Fox Business Network, from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "I wanted to wait until I was done with China. I didn't want to deal with China and Europe at the same time ", added the American president, referring to the trade truce just concluded by Washington and Beijing.
The EU’s largest trading partner in 2018, the United States has a deficit of 138 billion euros with it. What irritates a Donald Trump focused on rebalancing the American trade balance. "They have taken advantage of our country for years", the US president insisted in another interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said an agreement covering trade, technology and energy would be possible. According to one of his relatives, "Follow-up meetings are planned in the coming weeks".
Two agreements are being negotiated between the United States and the EU. One deals with the mutual recognition of standards certification bodies, to make it easier for industries to export their products. The other concerns the reduction of customs duties on fishery and industrial products. Technical discussions only took place on the first dossier, in the fall of 2019. However, a senior European Commission official downplays the scope of the other negotiations to be conducted: "The agreement on customs duties in the industrial sector can quickly be signed, because it does not include any health issue, relating to intellectual property or indications of origin. "
" Red line "
Unless Donald Trump wants to extend negotiations to agricultural products at all costs, as he has repeatedly called for. But this question is not part of the mandate of the Brussels negotiators. "It’s a red line for Europeans", we explain to the Commission. The President has already twice threatened to impose additional tariffs on automobiles from the Old Continent. These are taxed at 2.5% in the United States, while American cars are taxed 10% in the EU. But this surcharge would also include auto parts, which could penalize manufacturers based in the United States.
