On Friday 29 June, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced on the sidelines of the European Council his intention to visit US President Donald Trump in Washington “after 24 July” (and before the end of July, his close circle says), to appease transatlantic trade tension, mainly in the automobile sector (see EUROPE 12050).
After the European summit, Juncker told the press: “I already had an opportunity to speak about this with Mr Trump during the G7 summit in Charlevoix (early June). All in all, it is the American multinationals that are winners on all our trade of goods and services. The result is quite different: we are in deficit and our American friends are not”.
“I am working in full harmony with Donald Tusk. I will go to Washington and I will present the European point of view. I don’t like this idea. Sometimes I suspect the American administration of dividing the EU into different member states, but when it comes to trade, this is a competence of the EU and thus of the European Commission”, Juncker said.
“We should de-dramatise these relations, we need these relations, the US needs these relations. I am not sure we will find an agreement between the US and the EU but we’ll try”, he concluded.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “we shall do everything to avoid a trade war. We have given a mandate to Juncker along these lines”. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry, with editorial staff)