European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s meeting with US President Donald Trump seemed to have achieved a breakthrough that could avoid a full-blown EU-US trade war. A rather positive joint statement was issued pledging to work towards “zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods”. This is taken well generally by both sides.
While the auto tariffs were not mentioned in the joint statement, Juncker later said that the Trump made a “major concession” for holding off on further tariffs, including autos, as long as the negotiations continue. Juncker said he expected Trump to follow through on it. Also, he noted that Trump agreed to reassess the measures in the steel and aluminum sector.
On the other hand, Trump hailed that “a breakthrough has been quickly made that nobody thought possible!” He also told reports that EU is going to start to “buy a lot of soybeans”. Trump also said “they’re going to be a massive buyer of LNG… and we have plenty of it”.
