The EU and US are set to restart trade negotiations next week after a two-month pause to try to settle unresolved sticking points in their controversial tariff deal struck in July.
The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and trade representative Jamieson Greer will hold high-level meetings in Brussels on Monday with ministers, EU commissioners and industry bosses.
The face-to-face meetings are the first talks since the six-week US government shutdown that began at the start of October. In a high-risk move, Lutnick and Greer have been invited to lunch with 27 trade ministers who are gathering for a summit on Monday.
One insider said: “We need to keep it focused, what we don’t want is individual countries going up to them and demanding deals on this, this and that.”
Brussels struck a deal with Donald Trump at his golf course in Scotland in July to avert his threat of 50% tariffs, instead agreeing a baseline 15% levy on most EU imports into the US.
Now Washington officials have made it clear they are frustrated with the EU’s slow pace of implementation on that deal, which is not legally binding and needs to be passed by parliament, a process that could take until February.
Among the significant outstanding problems expected to be discussed at Monday’s talks are the continuing 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium, separate tariffs on products with steel elements, and food and drink levies.
Several member states want to see the removal of the 15% tax on wine and spirits including France, which has been hit by duties on Cognac, Ireland on whiskey and all the wine-producing countries.
Before a dinner on Monday night Lutnick and Greer will hold talks with the EU’s trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, its defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, and the commissioner responsible for technology, Henna Virkkunen, to discuss the continuing crisis involving chip supply from China.
They will also meet industry bosses at a business round table expected to included the heads of Volkswagen and the French company TotalEnergies, said insiders.
Persuading the US that the steel derivatives go entirely against spirit of the deal struck in July was a “top priority” said one EU insider.
In September, the US listed 407 products that included an element of steel, ranging from knitting needles to wind turbines and washing machines, that would face separate tariffs.
And now, as part of a rolling programme to protect its industries, it is looking at adding a further 700 products including tin cans and bicycles.
Companies such as the German agriculture machinery firm Krone, have said the “hidden” tariffs are alarming and causing a nightmare for exporters with US customs officials charging 200% in tariffs to anyone who has failed to complete a mountain of paperwork citing the origin of all steel from the “suppliers” and the “supplier to the supplier to the supplier”.
The EU and US will also discuss the prospect of working in alignment to “ringfence” their domestic steel industries to protect against cheaper Chinese imports.
Brussels hopes that steel anti-dumping proposals announced in October, which match Trump’s steel tariffs, will persuade the US president to slash the 50% tariffs on EU steel.
