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Washington / Brussels (dpa) – US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker have avoided an open trade war – but after their surprising agreement, many details remain open .
Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the development on Thursday, while France reacted cautiously. German professional badociations saw a need for clarification.
Trump and Juncker agreed on Wednesday in Washington to settle the trade dispute and for the time being to impose no new special tariff. Both parties now want to start discussions on the abolition of tariffs on industrial products. High US taxes on cars are therefore excluded.
In turn, Mr. Juncker agreed that the EU wanted to facilitate the import of LPG from United States and introduce more soy from the United States. How it should happen, but is completely unclear. The European Commission has kept its coverage on the details.
million. Juncker said after the meeting that the US and the EU wanted to talk about standardization and work together to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO). Trump said the two sides agreed to work towards the abolition of tariffs, trade restrictions and subsidies on manufactured goods. Seek to break down barriers to services, as well as chemicals, pharmaceuticals and medical products.
Trump also said that the EU would be "a very, very big buyer" of LPG. With that, she will be able to diversify her energy consumption. The Republican is a staunch opponent of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, as Germany goes ahead with Russia.
The US president stressed that they would not violate the spirit of the agreement. He added that the problem of steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by the United States would be resolved, as would the EU "retaliation rights". He meant the tariffs that the EU had already imposed on whiskey, jeans and motorbikes from the United States.
Threatened tariffs on EU Trump cars not mentioned explicitly. However, his finance minister, Steven Mnuchin, said Thursday that the United States wanted to abstain from these measures as negotiations continued.
Such tariffs would hit German car manufacturers hard. The automotive industry was therefore satisfied with this approach. "This de-escalation signal is important and after the developments of the last few weeks, a big step forward," said the president of the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), Bernhard Mattes, in Berlin. There is now a chance to prevent additional tariffs or even a trade war between the US and the EU.
Other professional badociations were more cautious. "The promised solutions are going in the right direction, but there is still a lot of skepticism," said DIHK President Eric Schweitzer. "We are still at eye level negotiations." The homework of the car is not finally out of the table. Dieter Kempf, president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), said: "The tariff spiral in transatlantic trade seems to be stopping for now, but now the words must also be followed by deeds."
The federal government was relieved. Chancellor Merkel praised "the agreement on a constructive approach to trade," said government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer on Twitter. "The European Commission can continue to count on our support." Minister of Economy Peter Altmaier told Juncker and EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström that they had "negotiated beautifully: tariffs have gone down, not increased!" This would guarantee free trade and millions of jobs.
France reacted coldly. The return to dialogue must be welcomed. However, trade must be negotiated on a clear basis and not under pressure, argued the Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire in Paris. There is always a need for clarification.
The Commission of the EU did not publicly address the details of the trade agreement. A spokeswoman on Thursday did not comment on how Juncker Trump could promise that the EU will import more soy from the United States in the future. The question of whether Juncker has the full support of the EU countries for the agreement has remained unanswered. The spokesman only pointed out that prior to his meeting, Mr Juncker had again consulted with Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and other European heads of government.
Up to now, transatlantic trade in soybeans needs to be stimulated because at present, there are no EU import rights on the raw material, which is particularly important for animal feed. The European Commission said that it was able to make the promise to Trump, because lower prices due to the trade dispute between the United States and China, the demand for American soybeans in Europe will increase. Beijing has imposed retaliatory duties on soybean imports into the United States. For this reason, it is expected that other major producers, such as Brazil and Argentina, will further shift their exports to China.
Trump told Juncker that the EU would start buying "almost immediately" large quantities of soybeans from the United States. "It's a big problem." It has also been under increasing pressure because of its commercial policy in Germany. The conflict with China has led to mbadive losses for American farmers. Many Republicans have strongly criticized punitive tariffs. Trump was therefore dependent on a quick success.
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