Partnership between EU and US is no longer rosy

Is the United States still the “closest partners, friends and allies” of the European Union? The EU’s mainstream media outlets and opinion leaders have been questioning the cross-Atlantic partnership after the US announced that starting on June 1 it would impose additional duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum imports from the EU amid the endless talks with the Donald Trump administration.

The EU has vowed to take tit-for-tat measures while the bloc’s trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom termed May 31, when the US announced the decision, as a “bad day” for world trade. Malmstrom’s reaction follows European Council President Donald Tusk’s strong criticism of US President Trump’s policy of dealing with an ally. In fact, last month Tusk said that Trump practices a policy of “capricious assertiveness”.

Tusk even pointed out that the EU should be grateful to Trump “because thanks to him we have got rid of all illusions”. Public opinion within the EU has also been downbeat about the across-Atlantic relationship ever since Trump won the US presidential election in 2016 and entered the White House in January 2017.

No wonder the summit between Donald Trump and European leaders in May 2017 was downgraded to a leaders’ meeting, and it lasted just about one hour in Brussels. Trump has held many summits with global leaders, but no such summit has taken place between Washington and Brussels.