Dousa: The EU will be able to pressure Trump with “both carrot and stick”

Brussels – This week’s meeting of trade ministers followed the weekend’s tariff pause between China and the USA and an American trade agreement with the British last week – and reports of a negotiation invitation in the form of a letter from the Trump administration to the EU Commission.

“Baby steps,” says Sweden’s trade minister Benjamin Dousa about the agreements with China and the UK.

“I stand firm that in the coming weeks I do not believe we (the EU) will land with the USA,” he adds after the ministerial meeting.

Some form of agreement will surely come in time, according to Dousa. He believes that the EU will be able to pressure President Donald Trump significantly harder than the British – with “both carrot and stick.”

“If that is what awaits Europe, then the USA can expect us to move forward with countermeasures. This is far from a free trade agreement. I’m not even sure I would call it a trade agreement at all,” he says about the British agreement.

A list of the EU’s possible countermeasures includes tariffs on US goods worth 95 billion euros. There are also certain EU restrictions on exports to the USA of certain steel products and chemicals. This would be in addition to the tariffs on US goods worth 25 billion euros that the EU paused in April.

“We will analyze this very carefully, just to ensure Swedish jobs and the Swedish economy. Because we do not want to shoot ourselves in the foot now. We want to put pressure on the USA, but we do not want this to harm Europe’s and Sweden’s competitiveness,” says Dousa.

A decision on the countermeasures will likely come in early June.

(May 16)