The European Union’s trade chief held “intense” talks with his counterparts in US President Donald Trump’s administration, voicing hope on Thursday that a transatlantic trade war could be averted and despite the Oval Office’s searing criticism of the bloc.
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Maros Sefcovic met with newly confirmed US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the director of the US National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, and the president’s nominee for US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, in a four-hour meeting in which the EU envoy said the two sides focused heavily on steel.
The Trump administration is expected to slap a 25 per cent tariff on foreign steel and aluminium on March 12. It is also preparing to raise tariffs to match those charged by other countries on American exports, deploying an overall policy of “reciprocity” against all US trading partners.
Trade is one of several fronts on which the transatlantic alliance that has prevailed since the end of the second world war has frayed since Trump’s second presidential term started last month.
Brussels considers the two sides to represent “the most integrated economic relationship in the world” when goods, services and investment are taken into account.
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Europe has a trade surplus in goods of about US$160 billion with the US, although the US has a surplus in services trade of about US$106 billion with the EU, according to the bloc’s data.