The mission to the United States by a delegation of MEPs from the European Parliament's Trade Committee (INTA) during the week of 24 February may have shed new light on the positions of stakeholders across the Atlantic. But doubts remain, more than ever, as to the commercial strategy to be pursued vis-à-vis Washington.
For Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), the mission revealed the diversity of US positions compared to those of the EU, she explained in an interview with EUROPE on 2 March.
"Mini-deals" mistreat Congress
For example, President Donald Trump's administration's strategy of negotiating "mini-deals" marginalises Congress, to the dismay of both Democratic and Republican members, Hübner said. Indeed, the institution is now deprived of its role of monitoring the content of the talks and the implementation of these agreements, explained Ms Hübner.
Instead, she said, members of Congress are calling for a rapprochement with the EU by reinitiating the trade relationship through a comprehensive agreement that includes agriculture and services, including digital services.
However, it also became clear to MEPs in their talks with stakeholders in the United States that the risk of trade conflicts between European and American standards was increasing. These are, of course, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, but also, more specifically, environmental or climate standards. While the EU is considering carbon adjustment measures at its borders, Ms Hübner sees this as the beginning of new transatlantic tensions (see EUROPE 12388/6).
Only option in sight
For the time being, a "mini-deal" before 18 March (see EUROPE 12427/10) therefore seems to be the only way out of any future tariff escalation (see EUROPE 12431/4) while remaining within the mandates granted by the Member States to the Commission. A first part of the ongoing discussions focuses on the elimination of customs duties on industrial products, as well as on measures to facilitate the conformity assessment of products, in particular for sanitary and phytosanitary standards. But this last point, like the rest of the transatlantic trade relationship, is at stake, Hübner added: here too, the White House seems to apply a prism centred on the US trade balance deficit with the EU and would only agree to simplify procedures for products where the US balance of trade is in deficit with the EU. Energy and new technologies are the last two parts of this commercial triptych.
Doubts also remain for Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany), chair of the INTA committee, who also made the trip to Washington. "Would a deal on facilitation of SPS procedures be enough to deter the US from slapping tariffs on EU products? Will it ever be enough for [President] Trump", he asked on Twitter on 27 February. He stressed that "an agreement has to work both ways". (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)