European Commission president in US does tight-rope walking on tariffs

Amid brewing trade tensions between the United States and the European Union (EU), Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, is visiting Washington in a bid to persuade the White House to change course.

The key question to judge the outcome of his visit is whether US President Donald Trump will follow up his threat to introduce customs duties on European cars, Gerhard Stahl, a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, told Xinhua.

The EU pundit saw the visit as a follow-up to the G7 meeting in Canada in June, which failed to quell the transatlantic spat over trade.

Asked about his expectation of the visit, Stahl said, “This discussion should help President Trump understand better the EU position for a rule-based international system and an open international economy.”

“It should also help address the weaknesses of the current WTO system. The discussions should focus on ideas on how to improve the world trading system without taking unilateral protectionist measures,” added Stahl, warning that US unilateral behavior creates the risk of damaging trade wars.

However, citing a study by the IMF, the professor said the United States, in comparison to other major powers, will be most affected by the negative consequences of a trade war.

Stahl, who is also a former secretary-general of the European Committee of the Regions, said that the EU is in a position to defend its interests but is in no mood to aggravate the condition.

“The interest of the delegation of President Junker is not to increase tensions, but hopefully to find some common grounds for the future development of the world trade system, assuming that a dialogue with the Trump administration might become easier after the November US mid-term elections,” he said.

He stressed that Trump’s “America First” policy, which intends to replace the rulebased international system by increased national competition and bilateral agreements, is against the policy orientation of the EU.

As long as the US government is following protectionist policies, the EU has to look for other partners to defend an open international economy, he noted.