European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced on Thursday 25 May that consultations on trade would shortly be held between the Commission and the US administration in order narrow the differences.
Speaking to the press after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Juncker sidestepped the question of whether he had, that same day, raised the issue of the EU-US free-trade negotiations (TTIP), that have been at a standstill since the end of 2016, with US President Donald Trump, announcing only bilateral consultations on international trade.
“We spoke at length about international trade and free trade issues. We stressed the need for free but fair competition. And we agreed that Commission and Trump administration delegations would meet sometime in the forthcoming weeks and months to bring our points of view more closely into line with each other because we felt that there were too many differences in both analysis and action”, Juncker said.
The EU is still awaiting the position of the Trump administration on the TTIP talks that were put on hold after the second round of technical negotiations in October 2016, under the previous US administration headed by Barack Obama (see EUROPE 11654).
Additionally, Trump’s overall trade policy worries the EU in terms both of his initiatives to determine the causes of and bring an end to the American trade deficit and of his threats to pull out of the multilateral system (see EUROPE 11786).
Having being confirmed by the US Senate as Trade Representative (USTR) on 11 May, Robert Lighthizer will meet Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis during the week of 19 June, with the old transatlantic dispute over hormone-treated beef lurking in the background. (see EUROPE 11706). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)