At an event organised by the Mouvement des Entreprises France (Medef) on Wednesday 27 August, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Stéphane Séjourné, expressed his concern about the predictability of the agreement concluded between the EU and the United States in July. While he initially defended the outcome of the negotiations, he said that the conditions would have to be reviewed if new tariffs were imposed by US President Donald Trump: “The risk we run is that we lack predictability. In this context, the Commission must obviously review the terms of this agreement”. Because Donald Trump could go back on the terms throughout his mandate, without limit, he warned: “We’ve got someone on the other side who doesn’t respect any rules, either customary or ethical”.
An agreement criticised for its content and form. According to the French Trade Minister, Laurent Saint-Martin, who also took part in the event, the EU must play by the new rules in trade negotiations. He stressed that it is “urgent” for the EU to understand this new logic of power, which dominates the game of economic competition. The EU must therefore “assert itself as a power” and “adopt a clear defensive stance on the protection of key sectors”, explained the French Minister.
Aurore Lalucq MEP (S&D, French), who was also taking part in a round-table discussion at the Medef event, said that if the US President didn’t keep his word, the EU had “no courage”. “It’s about time we had some”, she insisted. Like the Minister for Trade, she called for a show of strength with the United States.
While the European Commission wants to reassure about its regulatory sovereignty, it has already made concessions on climate and trade policy, in the joint declaration between the EU and the United States, which is admittedly non-binding, the EU promised to “work to provide additional flexibilities in the implementation of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism”. This is in addition to the legislative work already completed on relaxing the administrative burden of CBAM.
According to Minister Saint-Martin, the EU may not have been effective enough in its negotiations. “Compared with other countries that have negotiated agreements with the United States, the EU is doing rather well, if we look at the final rate and the exemptions. Wouldn’t we have done better with another method? I think so”.
Faced with this criticism, Stéphane Séjourné defended the method and the result. In his view, the 15% all-in rate obtained by the Commission is much better than those negotiated by other countries, and the few tariff exemptions are also unprecedented. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)