The European Commission continues to bring positions with the Trump administration despite the constant provocations of the US president. Avoiding a commercial war with harmful consequences for the European economy (and that of that country) is the main objective of the EU, which has promised, however, responded to the tariffs imposed by Washington. The reality is that “work” ahead, according to community sources, after a second meeting of the Commissioner for Commerce and Economic Security, Maros Sefcovic, with the US government, although Brussels aspires to a “negotiated solution.”
SEFCOVIC has traveled Washington for the second time in just over a month to try to soften the Trump position, which aims to impose a 25% tariff on aluminum and EU steel and respond with what it calls “reciprocal tariffs” to taxes that exist in the EU – also for European consumers – such as VAT. After his first meeting, the Slovak commissioner opened the door to reduce rates to imported vehicles to that country, which is 10% compared to the 2.5% that the US imposes on Europeans.
“The work is far from having finished and continues on the two ways: we are compromising constructively with the US administration; we are preparing to protect our single market if necessary,” community sources point out after the meeting that Sefcovic has maintained with the secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, Trump’s economic advisor Kevin Hassett, and ambassador Jamieson Greer. “We better understand what American administration intends to achieve. In fact, we share some of the objectives, since the EU also intends to strengthen its industrial base,” they bet.
The meeting has occurred after Brussels decided postpone a few days of a part of the tariffs with which I was going to respond to rates to aluminum and steel. In a first response, the European Commission raised reactivating on April 1 the taxes that were suspended corresponding to the conflict that occurred in 2018 and that included products such as LEVI’s jeans, the Bourbon whiskey or the Harley Davison motorcycles, among others, for a value of 8,000 million euros. And a second package, with which to reach the 26,000 million that is the punishment of Washington, which would take effect on April 12. The proposal is now that everyone enforces in force on that date to give margin to the negotiation.
And, on the one hand, there is the negotiation with Washington. “Our favorite scenario is to avoid unnecessary sufferings, reaching a negotiated solution to the concerns of the US, watching at the same time for the interests of the EU,” community sources point out after the meeting.
But, on the other hand, the intention of the European Commission is to have a margin of maneuver within 27 to analyze the complete list of products to which tariffs are imposed after Trump’s angry response, which threatened to tax wine, the champagne and European spirits if the American whiskey rate is maintained. France, for example, wants to eliminate that product from the list.
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