In Brussels on Wednesday 17 October, European Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said that her meeting the day before with the US Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, had mainly been a “stock-taking exercise”.
She confirmed that any negotiation with the United States must respect the following sequence: a scoping exercise followed by a mandate request to the member states, adding once again that the negotiations were not yet underway.
“We have said that we are prepared several times to start a scoping exercise on a limited agreement focused on industrial tariffs”, the Commissioner told the press. “So far, the US has not shown a big interest there, so the ball is in their court”, she added.
The American interpretation is quite different. Addressing a small group of journalists, Ross denied Malmström's assertions that negotiations on the 'roadmap' discussed by Presidents Juncker and Trump in Washington at the end of July were progressing “smoothly” (see EUROPE 12071).
“This is not the case at all”, added the US Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, who said that the process underway “is not meant to be a five-year project”. He went on to say that the Commission's Trade services were not engaged in a meaningful way on these subjects.
Although he is not Commissioner Malmström's designated interlocutor in these negotiations – this role belongs to Ambassador Lighthizer – the Secretary reiterated the need to achieve concrete results by November. Otherwise “the President's patience will come to an end”, he warned.
Behind this obligation to achieve results there is the threat of new American sanctions, this time on European cars, in the framework of 'Section 232', making it possible to restrict all imports that threaten the security of the country.
A report is still being drawn up, which “will be ready when it is needed”, Ross stressed. This should be understood to mean: once negotiations are making satisfactory progress. “But nothing has moved”, he lamented.
As for the content of these negotiations, Ross said that the American administration was interested in “all sectors where there is protectionism”, confirming that there was, on the other side of the Atlantic, “expectations that agriculture would be discussed in the final negotiations”. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)