Business Advocates on Both Sides Bemoan Trade Paralysis Between EU, US

Women who advocate for businesses in the EU and in the U.S. complained that while the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council is better than nothing, it has neglected the "trade" part of its title.

Marjorie Chorlins, senior vice president for Europe at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said during a Trade Winds virtual event Dec. 20 that the TTC "is sorely lacking in ambition. This is the time when we need more ambition, and we need more leadership, and we need more shared engagement around … securing supply chains, the challenge from China, and so on."

Chorlins said that in 2024, she was hoping for a "really modest win" such as harmonizing regulation for veterinary medicine.

BusinessEurope Deputy Director General Luisa Santos said, "We are happy we are talking, but we need to do more than talking."

She said that what TTC has accomplished so far is not in the areas that businesses need most. She said those areas are easing certification requirements, reducing testing and harmonizing regulations, particularly for green technology.

"We know this administration is not very keen to talk about market access liberalization, but we at least need to talk about trade facilitation," she said. "There are many things that can be done to reduce the obstacles."

Trade Winds is a regular discussion hosted by Cecilia Malmstrom, a former EU commissioner for trade, now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which presents the webcast.

Malmstrom noted that the EU and the U.S. conduct $1.3 trillion in trade in goods and services annually, and expressed regret that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership did not come to a conclusion. She said it is about two-thirds done, and added that it "is in the freezer, and is not likely to get defrosted soon."

Santos said she was disappointed that even with the deadline pressure of the October meeting between EU President Ursula von der Leyen and President Joe Biden, the EU and the U.S. were not able to reach an agreement on how to lift tariff rate quotas on European steel and aluminum. She noted that the Airbus-Boeing subsidy fight also isn't permanently resolved, and that there was no critical minerals agreement rolled out.

Santos said she thinks pushback from Congress when Japan was named as a critical minerals free trade partner was "probably leading the U.S. to be a little more demanding, a little more specific. It’s probably [that] some are trying to address many objectives with one tool, and this is not compatible in the end -- and we are stuck. And I hope we go beyond this."

She added, "We are not expecting that we will see major breakthroughs in the coming months until the elections. And this is the worrying part," that the EU and the U.S. aren't even capable of solving outstanding problems.

"We need to be able to address these issues," she said, in order to advance a trade agenda. "We need to put them aside."

Santos acknowledged that the Global Arrangement on Steel is complicated, because the U.S. is asking for something that may conflict with the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism passed by the European Parliament.

"One thing is carbon leakage. Another thing is overcapacity -- trying to cover both of those with one instrument, that is the challenge," she said. "I think we need to separate the two topics."

Santos said it would be great if Japan, the EU and the U.S. could come to an agreement on disciplines for state subsidies on industrial goods.

"We continue to postpone the issue, postpone the issue," she said of the steel and the civil aviation disputes, and she said that leaves companies uncertain about future tariff levels.