Threats, insults and delays: one year of the trade agreement between the EU and the US

BrusselsIt was meant to be the big trade deal that end the belligerence of the United States against the European Union and restore good relations between the two transatlantic powers. However, a year after the handshake between the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the US President, Donald Trump, in Scotland, the pact has not managed to change the White House's attitude towards its European allies. During these twelve months – Monday marks the first anniversary – the New York magnate has not stopped threatening and insulting the European Union's partners, which has endangered the application of the trade agreement on repeated occasions and delayed its entry into force in European institutions.

Trump's latest outburst against the European Union has come on the eve of the first anniversary of the pact. The President of the United States said he will apply between 10% and 12.5% to products he imports that are manufactured with forced labor, including European ones. The vast majority of European leaders, however, acted as if they hadn't heard and limited themselves to reacting to the fact that these customs duty percentages are below the agreed 15%. That is, with respect to what was signed. "We positively value Trump's announcement," assured a statement from the Community executive.

A few hours later, Trump attacked again. Following the multiple fines that Brussels has imposed on large US tech companies for violating EU digital regulations, the US president has promised to introduce a new "tax" against European allies "as soon as possible." "Stay tuned. The US cannot be Europe's piggy bank," Trump added in a social media post.

However, there have been threats and humiliations from Trump that the EU could not ignore. The most notable was the US president's desire to annex the island of Greenland. All European leaders came out in support of Denmark and the European institutions slowed down the processing of the trade deal. The European Parliament, for example, postponed the vote to ratify the legal text.

When it seemed that Trump had forgotten about the Arctic island, he threatened new tariffs on some member states on more than one occasion and, therefore, to break the agreement signed in the summer. The European Parliament postponed the vote to validate the deal two more times and, in fact, it was not until July 1st that the legislative text definitively entered into force in the European Union.

The constant threats from the US president also caused the negotiations on the legal text of the agreement between the European Commission, the member states and the European Parliament to drag on much longer than initially planned. The Eurochamber wanted to include several provisions in the trade agreement to try to force the White House not to bypass the agreement and to stop treating the EU in this way.

Among other things, the community chamber – and some member states, such as France – advocated for adding a clause stating that the pact would cease to be in effect if the New York tycoon launched a new threat. Finally, however, this point was rejected for fear of angering the US president and reviving the trade war, although the European Parliament did manage to include that the trade agreement ceases to be in effect just before the end of the current US president's term. Thus, if the pact is to be extended, the European Commission will have to present a new legislative proposal, which will have to be approved and negotiated again with the member states and the Eurochamber itself.

Brussels does not lose confidence

Whether out of necessity or conviction, the European Commission has not lost faith in the trade agreement and in the fact that the President of the United States will comply with it. The European Commissioner for Trade himself, Maros Sefcovic, assured in a statement that the first year of the pact "has been a story of compliance, stability and constructive cooperation". In addition, the community leader believes that it remedied the "turbulence" that transatlantic relations suffered during the first months of Trump's second term in the White House.

In fact, Brussels sees the trade agreement as a starting point for improving collaboration in other key areas, such as critical materials or artificial intelligence. "We continue to dialogue with the US for tariff reduction in more areas," assures Sefcovic. The reality is, however, that the first year of the trade pact between Brussels and Washington has been marked by constant tugs-of-war and threats from Trump, and its existence has been endangered even before it came into force.