The European Commission wants to keep tariff reprisals estimated at 93 billion euros to the United States frozen for another six months, after American President Donald Trump withdrew his threat against the eight European countries that sent troops to Greenland. The measure would come into force on the 7th.
“The Commission will make a proposal to extend our countermeasures, which will expire on February 7. I understand that it will be the same period as the previous suspension, which is six months,” said European Commission Trade Spokesperson Olof Gill.
The spokesperson recalled that the Commission wants to apply the trade agreement it reached with the United States, which allows Washington to export its industrial goods tariff-free, although at the same time he noted that the European bloc could activate reprisals “if necessary at some point.”
“With the US withdrawal of the tariff threat, we can return to the important task of implementing the joint EU-US communiqué,” Gill said.
At the extraordinary summit that European leaders held this Thursday to analyze the direction that the transatlantic relationship should take under a “volatile” Trump, a majority consensus emerged on the need to implement the trade pact, which the European Parliament paralyzed on Wednesday, before Washington withdrew its threat.
“President (of the Commission, Ursula) Von der Leyen was very clear when she said that ‘a deal is a deal’ (…) and it remains our roadmap to create the conditions of stability and predictability necessary for transatlantic trade”, pointed out the spokesperson, in reference to statements made yesterday by the President of the Commission at the end of the summit.
Faced with the new scenario, the Commission now wants to extend the suspension of tariff reprisals against the USA, a proposal that EU countries will have to validate by qualified majority in the coming days.
In this context, the EU also rules out, for now, the possibility of launching the “commercial bazooka”, an option that has been on the table in recent days.
“This week has shown that the EU is prepared to act when necessary. We achieve our objectives through diplomatic and political means, which will always be our priority, rather than spiraling into measures and countermeasures that will only help the adversaries we want to leave on the geopolitical sidelines,” Gill said.
MEPs on the European Parliament’s Trade Committee will discuss next Monday whether they will maintain the suspension of the agreement or whether they will change their stance, now that Trump has withdrawn the threat.
The head of the parliamentary committee, Social Democrat Bernd Lange, asked yesterday to know the details of the pre-agreement that Trump announced on Greenland, before making a decision.
