EU meets US to avoid an increasing trade war

EU leaders will meet Donald Trump in Washington today to try to prevent him from introducing new duties.

On of the participants of the EU delegation is naturally EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. She says;

“We will explain that the EU is not an enemy,” she told DN. There are special circumstances before the meeting in Washington, USA, on Wednesday. Donald Trump has repeatedly continued to attack the EU in play, mainly on Twitter. Just over a week ago, the US President called the EU for an “enemy”.

“We will declare that the EU is not an enemy, but a friend and allied. We and the United States share the view that WTO trade needs to be modernized, “said EU Commerce Commissar Cecilia Malmström to DN.

Both Cecilia Malmström and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will, according to Reuters, participate in the meeting with the US president.

According to Cecilia Malmström, the EU will not enter the meeting with specific offers.

Instead, the goal of the EU is to prevent an escalating trade war – and stop Donald Trump’s threat of car and car taxes.

“They would be catastrophic for the Swedish economy and the world as a whole,” says Cecilia Malmström to Swedish media.

The trade dispute began with the US introducing duties on steel and aluminum products on June 1. Donald Trump has used customs against several countries, it is something he can do without going through the congress. The response from the EU, Canada and Mexico to the customs came three weeks later, with customs duties on goods mainly manufactured in states governed by Republicans.

Now, Cecilia Malmström says that the EU has prepared a list of new goods to introduce tariffs on whether the US would move on with its threat of car tariffs.

“We do not hope it will go in this direction, and ghat we instead can find a creative solution.

If not, the EU Commission has prepared a long list of a commodities where customs duty will be introduced or raised on goods from US. It would mean an extra duties on approx. $ 20 billion (equivalent to about SEK 180 billion), says Malmström.

She mentions agricultural products, machinery and high-tech products as potential goods that the EU could handle with customs duties.