Trump and Juncker strive to relax

The meeting on the commercial dispute between the Director General of the European Commission Jean -Claude Juncker (left) And US President Donald Trump is attracting considerable interest. (25 July) (Photo: Evan Vucci / Reuters)

US President Donald Trump meets with European Commission President Jean -Claude Juncker, started Wednesday with friendly words.While Trump said that he was expecting "something positive", Mr. Juncker said that trade policy does not mean talking to each other "Our job is reduce tariffs, not increase them, "he said.

After a brief meeting in private, the meeting was expanded around the two delegations. Juncker, whose group also included Cecilia Malmström, head of trade policy at the European Commission, had in his luggage various proposals that he wanted to discuss with the Americans. Europeans therefore did not expect a breakthrough, but no doubt to help prevent a further escalation of trade tensions.

Threats by Tweet

At the center of the conflict is the threat of President Trump, who launched a few months ago Tariffs on European exports of steel and aluminum were to impose high taxes on EU motor vehicle exports. Just last week, the president accused Europeans of having charged 10% of US auto imports, while the United States only loaded 2.5% of European vehicles. He forgets, however, to mention that Washington requires an import fee of [25%] for vans and SUVs, while Europeans install for 10%.

Even before the arrival of the European delegation to the White House, Trump had overtaken Twitter, his preferred method of communication, to recognize that he's sticking to his tough attitude. He has announced extraordinary countermeasures if the talks do not lead to a fair trade agreement, as he understands it. In a tweet of Tuesday night, Trump said he was ready to make concessions if the Europeans were also making concessions: the US and the EU should have tariffs, trade barriers. and give up subsidies. This could then be called a free and fair market. He repeated these words to Juncker. The chair had talked about it at the G-7 meeting last month. There, however, the attack had been considered unrealistic. But Trump repeatedly stressed that he was not concerned with the outbreak of a trade war, but by the conclusion of agreements based on equity and reciprocity. Its tariff threats would aim to achieve this goal

Opponents also in their own country

With this, Trump finds little faith in his own country. This has already been demonstrated last week, when a US Commerce Department hearing on the introduction of tolls revealed that the industry was almost unanimous in opposing it, fearing that the damage in his own country is probably beyond the possibilities. In fact, such damage is already apparent, particularly in agriculture, which is beginning to suffer countermeasures from trading partners responding to US tariff increases. Since farmers are an important constituency for Trump and his Republican party, the president can not afford it. Instead of yielding to trade policy, he has now offered to help agriculture with a $ 12 billion aid program.