Once again, Trump blasts EU on trade
washington/struthers — President Donald Trump once again lashed out at the EU for what he called its “protectionist” trade practices, and indicated the United States will focus on a major deal with Britain.
“Working on major Trade Deal with the United Kingdom. Could be very big & exciting. JOBS!” Trump tweeted.
“The E.U. is very protectionist with the U.S. STOP!”
Trump frequently turns to Twitter to attack US trading partners for what he says are unfair trade policies, as his America-first agenda focuses on cutting US trade deficits, something economists say is unlikely to work and potentially damaging. In the EU, Germany has been a frequent target of Trump administration due to its large trade surplus.
The latest Twitter swipe came as US and British officials opened the second day of the inaugural round of talks aimed at guiding trade relations between the two countries in the post-Brexit era.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is meeting with his British counterpart Liam Fox for the US-UK Trade and Investment Working Group.
It will be “a key mechanism to deepen our already strong bilateral trade and investment relationship,
Working on major Trade Deal with the United Kingdom. Could be very big & exciting. JOBS! The E.U. is very protectionist with the U.S. STOP! US President Donald Trump @realDonaldTrump
and to lay the groundwork for our future trade relationship once the UK has left the EU,” Lighthizer said in a statement Monday.
“I look forward to building on our already strong economic relationship and furthering our mutual goal of achieving free and fair trade and investment to create goodpaying jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Fox said it will be important to give businesses in both countries continuity while Britain negotiates its status with the EU and after Brexit. “This will be our forum to strengthen the bilateral trade and investment relationship and deepen the already extensive economic ties between the UK and US,” Fox said.
Trade between the two countries is already worth about $230 billion a year, and together there is around $1 trillion invested in each other’s economies, according to USTR. Meanwhile, Trump vowed to rip up a free trade deal with Canada and Mexico if the text is not renegotiated to his liking. “We are renegotiating Nafta and if we don’t get the deal we want, we’ll terminate Nafta,” Trump told a group of veterans in Ohio, the center of America’s industrial heartland. “Nafta has been a disaster for Youngstown, it’s been a disaster for Ohio.”
Trump made scrapping Nafta a pillar of his presidential campaign, but has since softened his stance slightly. Earlier this month, his administration began the process of renegotiating the 23-year-old deal, which Trump says is not fair to American workers.
The former businessman has made reforming America’s economy a centrepiece of his brand. His timing has been auspicious, entering office after the recovery from the Great Recession was well entrenched and with the labour market approaching full employment. —