The European Union activates its machinery to force the White House to respect the terms of the already criticized trade agreement with the U.S. “A pact is a pact,” warned the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, a few hours before her Trade Commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, meets with the U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, in Paris. All this after President Donald Trump threatened this weekend with a 25% tariff on the import of European vehicles.
“A pact is a pact, and we have a pact, whose essence is prosperity, common standards, and reliability,” Von der Leyen said when asked about the latest U.S. challenge at a press conference in Yerevan, during the EU-Armenia bilateral summit. In any case, she insists, the EU is “prepared for all scenarios.”
Final phase
The German conservative insists that both parties are implementing the agreement
Including the breaking of the Turnberry (Scotland) trade pact? In July last year, Brussels and Washington signed the trade peace and the EU accepted a maximum cap of 15% tariffs on community products, including European cars. But now the White House accuses the Twenty-Seven of not implementing the trade pact because it has not been fully ratified, a process that is in the final phase of the internal procedures of the community institutions.
The truth is that the European Parliament delayed the process twice due to Washington’s vacillations, Trump’s serious threats to take Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to declare illegal the levies imposed by Trump. But this Wednesday the community institutions will resume final negotiations to end the process.
The German conservative insists from Armenia that now both parties are implementing the trade agreement and “respecting the different democratic procedures we have on each side.” “On the EU side, we are in the final phases of implementing the pending tariff commitments,” she indicated, with a willingness not to escalate the conflict.
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The envoy to appease the U.S. is the same Sefcovic, key negotiator of the Turnberry agreement, who is traveling to Paris to meet Greer on the sidelines of the G-7 Trade Ministers meeting to be held in the French capital. However, Sefcovic will find a Greer determined not to back down.
“The EU committed to reducing its own tariffs on American cars and to lowering tariffs on all industrial goods to zero. They also agreed to modify several of their regulations or grant certain flexibilities to the United States. However, they have not fulfilled any of that,” protested the U.S. representative in an interview on CNBC before traveling to Paris.
“Therefore, at some point, and after having discussed this matter with our European counterparts for many months, the president decided that if the Europeans are not implementing the agreement right now, we are not obligated to implement it in full either,” he explained. It will be the second meeting with Sefcovic in just two weeks, after the Slovak diplomat recently met him in Washington.
Von der Leyen’s reminder that Europe can face all possible scenarios is an important nuance. In its final validation of the pact, the Eurochamber introduced a clause that allows suspending the implementation of the trade pact if Trump imposes new levies, as would be the case. Brussels also insists that all options are on the table, including the possibility of launching the feared anti-coercion instrument against the U.S., known as the trade bazooka. “We already saw with Greenland that it is good to be prepared and determined,” said German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil yesterday in Brussels. “We want to avoid an escalation, but we are prepared,” he insisted.
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