“We met today in Washington, DC, to launch a new phase in the relationship between the United States and the European Union — a phase of close friendship, of strong trade relations in which both of us will win, of working better together for global security and prosperity, and of fighting jointly against terrorism,” begins the joint statement by Juncker and Trump, delivered at an unscheduled presser.
The statement listed five agreements, including “work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods”; importing by the EU of more liquified natural gas (LNG) from the US; launching “a close dialogue on standards in order to ease trade, reduce bureaucratic obstacles, and slash costs”; and working “closely together with like-minded partners to reform the WTO and to address unfair trading practices.” It further noted that the two parties “want to resolve the steel and aluminum tariff issues and retaliatory tariffs.”
Trump dubbed the agreement, which comes at the end of months of vicious sparring between the US and EU, as a “big day for free and fair trade,” Politico reported.
However, critics were quick to jump on the declaration's ambiguity. “Instead of a firm commitment, what we really got was big language of striking collaboration and entering into dialogue,” Marianne Schneider-Petsinger, a US geoeconomics fellow at Chatham House, told The Atlantic Thursday. “This, combined…
