The European Union’s attempt to wriggle its way out of one of the more extreme brackets of Donald Trump’s new tariffs regime is going as badly as expected, with senior figures returning from talks on Monday unaware even of what the U.S. is after.
EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič came away from the talk with his American counterparts with “little clarity on the U.S. stance,” according to figures cited in Bloomberg, leaving Europeans to wonder what the officials actually discussed in their almost two-hour meeting.
The financial paper added that “little” to “scant” progress was made, which may explain why Commission spokesmen have since been unwilling to provide comment on the talks, even to the most establishment publications.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is the next European leader to face Trump on Wednesday in a trip coordinated by Brussels, and which prompted Parisian concern about a disunified EU approach to the tariffs.
Some reports say Meloni will repeat the bloc’s “zero-for-zero” tariffs offer, which is an interesting approach given that the U.S. has already rejected it.
Meanwhile, EU officials are no doubt frustrated by the suggestion that Britain could again fare better in this tariff regime becauseof Brexit. U.S. Vice President JD Vance said this week:
I think there’s a good chance that, yes, we’ll [that is, America and the UK] come to a great agreement that’s in the best interest of both countries.
That is unless UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s anti-Brexit cosying up to the EU scuppers the hope of a separate UK-U.S. trade deal, which Edmund Burke Foundation chair James Orr said on Tuesday was quite possible.
'I don't think it's true that UK officials are making the best efforts they can to forge a free trade agreement with the US when at the same time they're pursuing a so-called Brexit reset with the EU.'
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
