US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50 per cent tariff on all goods sent to the US from the EU on Friday, raising fears of a renewed trade war.
Following a call with US trade officials, the EU’s Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said that the 27-country bloc was “fully engaged, committed to securing a deal that works for both.”
Maxwell Marlow, director of public affairs at free trade thinktank the Adam Smith Institute, said that Sefcovic’s statement was a warning shot that the EU would not be bullied into an unfavourable trade deal.
“Their approach is less constructive to, let’s say the Brits, because their market is larger, they’ve got more members, they’ve got more to offer,” he told The i Paper.
Maroš Šefčovič warned the EU is ready to “defend its interests” in trade with Trump. (Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)
“The EU wants to maintain their independent approach, they want to maintain connections with China. That’s really important for them, and something the Trump team don’t want.
“And the EU will want to maintain their regular their positions of regulatory superpower, which again, is difficult for Trump. There’s a difference between the the ideology of regulation in EU and US. That’s going to be the biggest stumbling block for both of these parties.”
Shanker Singham – CEO of consultancy firm Competere, former trade adviser to the UK’s Trade Secretary and former adviser to the US Trade Representative – said the two parties were worlds apart in negotiations – and that the US felt the EU was “not negotiating in good faith”.
“The US administration feels that the EU is not negotiating in good faith since it does not suggest it is willing to change the major problems the US has. The EU will only enter the deal zone if they make a good faith effort to change some of the issues raised in their national trade estimate entry and they are very far from that.”
UK could suffer in EU-US trade deal
“Our two primary trade relationships are with the EU and US, so pass-through costs may go up for Brits importing from the EU or US in areas affected by tariffs,” he said.
Singham also warned that the UK could get caught in the crossfires of a US-EU trade war through its proximity to EU regulations.
Sir Keir Starmer said at the time that ‘nothing is off the table’ in considering how to respond to Donald Trump’s tariffs (Photo: Ben Stansall/AFP)
Renewal of the trade war which commenced – and then climbed down – earlier this year could destabilise the global economy, impacting UK businesses and shareholders.
Billions were wiped off the value of UK pension pots, with fears that the turbulence could hinder the UK’s economic growth and push up inflation.
However, he kept a 10 per cent baseline tax in place against all trading partners and a 25 per cent tariff against EU steel and aluminium imports.
Donald Trump claims that about 70 countries are seeking to reach trade deals with the US since he announced high tariffs for American imports (Photo: Demetrius Freeman / The Washington Post via Getty Images) square NEWS Big ReadUK sends troops, Apaches and rockets to Nato's longest border with Russia
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European leaders have sought to avoid a trade war with the US, with Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin saying “we do not need to go down this road” and that “negotiations are the best and only sustainable way forward”.
But they have refused to bow to pressure from the White House.
France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Saint-Martin, said that the EU was focusing on “de-escalation”, but was “ready to respond” if it took further economic hits.
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