EU to focus on WTO with US as irritants ease, trade chief says

The U.S. and European Union have “grounded and addressed the two biggest trade irritants” lingering from the Trump administration and are now focused on strengthening the multilateral trading system, the EU’s trade chief said. 

In October, the U.S. and EU agreed to pause tariffs on more than $10 billion worth of transatlantic goods as “part of a broader reset” following four tumultuous years under former President Donald Trump, EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview Thursday at a Financial Times conference. 

A major component of the truce allows the EU to export 3.3 million tons of steel to the U.S. without a 25% Trump-era tariff, but any exports above that quota will be charged the duty. 

“For us, the final solution is a complete lifting of those tariffs,” Dombrovskis said. “We see it as an interim step in the right direction—it’s a two-year arrangement, and in those two years, we’ll be working on the global steel aluminum arrangement.” 

The sides share the goals of decarbonizing the industries and will use the time to discuss how to align their approaches, he said. 

The U.S. and EU will work together to ensure the World Trade Organization has a successful ministerial conference later this month that produces concrete outcomes on fishery subsidies and trade and health, he said. “It is important for the continued relevance of the WTO.”

While the EU is “willing to look” at the arguments in favor of a waiver to WTO intellectual-property rules for vaccines, European policy makers would prefer a more “holistic approach” that deters export restrictions and expands vaccine access via trade facilitation and compulsory licensing arrangements.