Speaking on Tuesday, May 7, on the future of transatlantic economic relations at the European Business Summit, Gordon Sondland, US Ambassador to the EU, said the United States is ready to address "all issues" in upcoming trade talks. The EU, for its part, will have to agree to include agriculture "in one form or another" before the end of the negotiations.
“The relationship between the EU and the US is a strong one, and as strong as ever”, the US ambassador said at the outset, also underlining the dynamic diplomatic work with Member States whenever the Commission showed itself to be “difficult”.
“Economic security”
Returning to the issue of the threat of tariff sanctions on imports of European cars under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act (see EUROPE 12195/1), the US ambassador defended the need to ensure his country’s “economic security”. According to him, it is not so much a question of achieving a rebalancing of the United States' trade balance with the EU than to guarantee "fair" conditions for American producers.
He also criticised a recent World Trade Organisation (WTO) panel ruling in a dispute between Russia and Ukraine (DS512). This ruling confirms that a WTO panel can determine whether a security exception invoked by a WTO member is justified and warns that such exceptions cannot be invoked to circumvent WTO obligations.
For Mr Sondland, it is a matter of a country's sovereignty to judge, alone, what affects its national security.
The ambassador also recalled Washington's reluctance to comply with this WTO 'jurisprudence', thus justifying the blocking of the appointment of judges to the WTO Appellate Body (see EUROPE 12146/16). The multilateral institution must nevertheless be reformed, Mr Sondland admitted, but in the sense of a "need to go back” to “why the WTO was negotiated in the first place”, its “original charter”, he clarified.
“Agriculture” in the negotiations
As for the upcoming bilateral trade negotiations (see EUROPE 12236/12, 12175/1), they must make everyone "happy", stressed Mr Sondland.
However, in his view, the EU is “dragging its feet” because, "the EU, in its own, selfish interest, has no interest in negotiating a trade deal” because of its trade surplus, customs duties and non-tariff barriers, which "continue to come from the Commission”. And if the United States is in surplus on the transatlantic services balance, it is only because the EU “is not in this business”.
As for the question of including agriculture in these discussions, which has been radically rejected on the EU side, Mr Sondland admited that it will not be a condition for launching negotiations, but that European negotiators “will have to agree... on some form of agriculture... before a deal gets signed”.
No red line
Ambassador Sondland also added that Washington had “no red lines” and was ready to put all topics on the table.
Cecilia Malmström, the European Commissioner for Trade, had indicated in early January that the United States did not wish to discuss the Jones Act [excluding the European industry from the sale of ships destined for US coastal trade], public procurement via the Buy American Act or geographical indications (see EUROPE 12169/19).
However, Sondland acknowledged that launching these talks is not a priority for the USTR, the United States Trade Representative office, which is more involved in US relations with China or the validation of the USMCA, its free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Earlier in the day, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, also wanted to be reassuring, stressing "daily" exchanges with Washington. “I think we can trust the President of the US when it comes to trade relations between the US and the EU”, he told the press. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)