17 January 2020

POLITICO: EU trade chief: Effort to ease tensions with US off to ‘good start’

European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said he was optimistic that the United States and the European Union could work together on trade even though he received no promises that the Trump administration would hold off on adding tariffs on about $10 billion worth of European goods.

"We didn't get into any definitive actions today that are being contemplated by the United States," Hogan told reporters after meetings with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and others in the administration.

He acknowledged that U.S. officials did "express the strong view" that France's new digital services tax discriminates against U.S. internet companies. U.S. representatives also said the proposals the EU has made to resolve a separate dispute over government subsidies for Airbus fall short of addressing U.S. concerns.

Both issues have prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten to aim his favorite trade weapon — tariffs — squarely at the EU.

Lighthizer has threatened to unilaterally impose 100 percent duties on $2.4 billion worth of French goods after France slapped a digital services tax on tech giants last year. [...]

Hogan, who is making his first visit to Washington as trade commissioner, said earlier on Thursday during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies that he wanted to shift the U.S.-EU trade relationship to a more positive track.

Still, only so much could be accomplished in one trip, he said.

“It’s a good start ... but we’ve a lot more to do,” he told reporters in Washington. "I didn’t expect to be successful in resetting the relationship in a few days. But this was an opportunity for me to meet people for the first time, and I was very happy with the level of engagement, the very positive cooperative spirit we had with all our interlocutors in the administration."

Hogan said he hopes ongoing talks between Mnuchin and French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire could lead to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development negotiating a compromise on the digital services tax issue without the United States following through on its tariff threat. [...]

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