The Trump administration’s top trade negotiator is warning Brussels that transatlantic trade could again become a “flashpoint” as Washington grows frustrated with the EU’s delays in implementing pledged tariff cuts.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told the Financial Times the bloc has been “slow” to reduce duties and ease regulations despite a deal struck in July between President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“Trade has always been a flashpoint,” Greer said. “They have many regulations and nontariff barriers that block our exports and reduce our effective market access over there, while we historically have had very broad access for them.
“It’s quite unbalanced.”
The tariff cuts — covering U.S. industrial goods, seafood, pork, and some agricultural products — await European Parliament approval and are unlikely before February, officials said.
Greer will meet EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic this week to push for progress, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick set to follow Nov. 24.
“We did not solve every problem in our relationship with our joint statement from earlier in the year,” Greer added to FT.
U.S. officials have also pressed concerns over EU rules affecting American companies and are preparing a five-point proposal, including talks on regulatory alignment and steel tariff reductions.
“They’re being kind of slow right now on all of this, which is unfortunate,” a senior administration official told FT, noting the squandering of better relations with the Trump administration on trade and Russia’s war with Ukraine.
“I think that we’re in a moment where the president has changed his views on Europe and approach to Europe in the past six months,” the source added.
“I hope that Europe doesn’t miss its opportunity to capitalize on the president’s current approach.”
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