The European Commission is pressing European Union-based companies for details of their U.S. investment plans, reports suggest. The hasty queries—based on EU officials contacting nearby CEOs and corporate investors—stem from the fear of a pending tariff-based trade war.
Such information would be key to Eurocrats readying themselves for trade talks with Washington. Insiders suggest that some German companies are losing interest in U.S. investment, contrary to President Donald Trump’s belief that European corporate spending—even under duress—could help to re-industrialise the U.S. economy and cut trade deficits.
It appears that the EU is urgently trying to assess its own bargaining strength compared to that of Trump, based on securing Europe-wide investment data from via major EU corporate lobby BusinessEurope.
In 2023, the same lobby found that, of global firms in 35 countries, 90 percent considered the EU a less attractive place to invest than in 2020, citing continuously high energy prices and increased regulation. Failure to address this, from Ursula von der Leyen downwards, gives Brussels even less room to manoeuvre ahead of Trump’s scheduled threat of a 50 percent EU-wide tariff from July 9th.
