Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Trade tensions between the
Speaker 1: United States and the European Union of resurfaced since President
Speaker 1: Trump said he would raise the tariffs on e U
Speaker 1: cars and trucks to twenty five percent. The European Commission
Speaker 1: President Ursla Vonderlon says the e is ready for all
Speaker 1: scenarios if Washington breaks its trade agreements. Truck last summer,
Speaker 1: they saw ahead of a meeting of G seven trade
Speaker 1: ministers happening in Paris this morning, joining us in our
Speaker 1: Brussels studio to discuss as the US ambassadors the opinion
Speaker 1: Andrew Poster, good morning, ambassador. Great to have you back
Speaker 1: with us. Good morning on Bloomberg Radio. Can you explain
Speaker 1: the route of this problem? President Trump says he wants
Speaker 1: to increase these levees because the EU isn't complying with
Speaker 1: the deal.
Speaker 2: What's the issue, so Beck.
Speaker 3: In March of twenty twenty five, the President took auto
Speaker 3: turifs up to twenty five percent. After a bunch of
Speaker 3: back and forth communications between President Vonderline and President Trump,
Speaker 3: we reached an agreement in Turnbury last year, we would
Speaker 3: reduce our tariffs to fifteen percent and the EU would reduce.
Speaker 2: Their tariffs to zero.
Speaker 3: We reduced our tariffs on August first of last year,
Speaker 3: that's nine months ago on autos, and to date we
Speaker 3: haven't seen the EU reduced a single tariff. Not only
Speaker 3: haven't they reduced tariffs, but when the Parliament came forward
Speaker 3: after many delays and voted to approve the deal, they
Speaker 3: tried to change the deal. They want to add four
Speaker 3: or five amendments to the deal which completely change it.
Speaker 3: They want to renegotiate. So the President said, look, after
Speaker 3: nine months of you enjoying the benefits of this deal
Speaker 3: and dragging your feet on getting us the benefits, times up,
Speaker 3: We're not going to put up with this. You need
Speaker 3: to get this thing done. You need to get it
Speaker 3: done the way we agreed to it, the way President
Speaker 3: Vanderline and I agreed to it. And if you can't
Speaker 3: get it done, then we're going to take tariffs back
Speaker 3: up and we're going to take back take the tariff
Speaker 3: up on notice. Now it hasn't happened yet, but he's
Speaker 3: notified Europe that it will happen.
Speaker 4: The European Union would argue that this is the system
Speaker 4: by which the legislation has to be passed that it
Speaker 4: has to go through the legislative process. Was it necessary
Speaker 4: to threaten tariffs in order to try to push this through?
Speaker 3: So two things. One is the Parliament could have approved
Speaker 3: this a long time ago. This is something that was delayed.
Speaker 3: They delayed the vote, they delayed the committee votes. It
Speaker 3: was stalled for a long time, and when they finally
Speaker 3: pass it, they want to amend the deal. So when
Speaker 3: you're saying it's our legislative process, well, the legislative process
Speaker 3: was to drag your feed, continue hearings, continue votes, not
Speaker 3: have them, and then change the deal once you do
Speaker 3: have a vote. Then I would say that that's not
Speaker 3: really a very fair legislative process.
Speaker 1: They did also delay it because if i'm there were
Speaker 1: also fresh threats of tariffs coming from the United States
Speaker 1: as well, which was one of the key delays. But
Speaker 1: the last time that we spoke, you were on your
Speaker 1: way to the planary session in Strasbourg to talk to
Speaker 1: MEPs about their concerns. Did that not come to the
Speaker 1: right resolution? Is that why we're in the situation wherein.
Speaker 3: I think Berd Longey did a great job getting this
Speaker 3: bill through the Parliament. I think there were a lot
Speaker 3: of people opposed to the deal and he had to
Speaker 3: make some concessions to get it approved in parliament.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: Chairman Webber has done a great job with the EPP.
Speaker 3: I think there are people who are sincerely interested in
Speaker 3: getting this deal approved, but it did get delayed continuously.
Speaker 3: The United States has not increased tariffs. That's just not true.
Speaker 3: We have not increased to threaten too well, it's a
Speaker 3: big difference between threatening to do something and doing it
Speaker 3: since the day that we since August first of last year,
Speaker 3: tariffs on automobiles have been fifteen percent. Nobody's changed that.
Speaker 3: And when it did get when they do finally get
Speaker 3: it through the parliament, I think everybody realizes that they
Speaker 3: want to renegotiate the deal. I quite honestly, in the
Speaker 3: United States side, there's no interest in renegotiating the deal.
Speaker 2: We have a deal, and as many in the EU.
Speaker 3: This isn't just the United States saying this, but many
Speaker 3: people in the European Union have been saying a deal
Speaker 3: is a deal, we need to approve this. Well, we
Speaker 3: agree a deal is a deal. We need to approve this,
Speaker 3: so let's get it approved.
Speaker 4: What conversations have you been having this week then, and
Speaker 4: what conversations are you having now with the EU? Do
Speaker 4: you think that this you know, as you say times up,
Speaker 4: do you think that that message is getting across Do
Speaker 4: you think that that is going to speed things up?
Speaker 3: Well? I think rather than talking about conversations I have
Speaker 3: with various EU officials, some of who are favorably disposed
Speaker 3: towards our position, some of them are aggressively not favorably
Speaker 3: disposed our position. I think if you look at the
Speaker 3: public statements, you can see that there are divisions within
Speaker 3: the EU as to whether their support for doing this
Speaker 3: deal or opposition to it. But I believe that there
Speaker 3: is more support than there is oppositions, So I believe
Speaker 3: we're going to get this deal done.
Speaker 2: Look, this deal is part of really getting.
Speaker 3: The the new EU US relationship where it needs to be.
Speaker 3: We need to get certainty in our trade relationship. Businesses
Speaker 3: need that, countries need that. That will lead to greater
Speaker 3: prosperity for both the EU and the US. And it
Speaker 3: actually says that in the Framework Trade Agreement we've got
Speaker 3: the critical Minerals deal, which we now have a memorandum
Speaker 3: of understanding on that. Commissioner Chefkevich and Secretary Rubio signed.
Speaker 3: It was last week or the week before. We're trying
Speaker 3: to get Europe on board, and I think we will
Speaker 3: come to a Pax Silica agreement with the EU, which
Speaker 3: will help bring the EU more aggressively into the AI economy,
Speaker 3: along with as a partner with the United States. So
Speaker 3: these are all efforts to try and bring the two
Speaker 3: economies together, and I think we'll both be more prosperous
Speaker 3: if we can approve these agreements, and I think we
Speaker 3: will approve them. It's just going through this process is
Speaker 3: not easy, and I think both sides doing the best
Speaker 3: it can. But nine months of you got to deal,
Speaker 3: we got nothing isn't going to work.
Speaker 1: Where do you see the I suppose the zone for negotiations. Now,
Speaker 1: then what are the things because I mean the clauses
Speaker 1: that the European Parliament added, including you know that it
Speaker 1: would only the deal would only come into force when
Speaker 1: the US held a bit side of the bargain. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure you agree with that if you're talking about
Speaker 1: a deal being a deal.
Speaker 2: We've been holding up our side of the bargram since
Speaker 2: last fall, so.
Speaker 1: That's not an issue. The other the other key condition
Speaker 1: was we should be.
Speaker 3: We should be making that condition with I mean but
Speaker 3: that that I guess, I guess really we are. You
Speaker 3: don't have a deal until both people comply. A deal
Speaker 3: isn't you do what you promise and and we'll do
Speaker 3: ours later. A deal is you do what you promise
Speaker 3: we'll do would we promise? Well, okay, we're waiting.
Speaker 1: Sure, but I'm trying to identify upos. What is it
Speaker 1: exactly that that was in the European Parliament changes that
Speaker 1: that is now an issue given that you've been talking
Speaker 1: to the European Parliament about this.
Speaker 3: Well, the things that are an issue are the things
Speaker 3: that weren't in the deal that was agreed to a
Speaker 3: Turnbury and that you know, really great people on the
Speaker 3: on the EU side, big advocates for the European Union,
Speaker 3: Bjorn Seabird morro Chef negotiated this against people from the
Speaker 3: US who are the same Jamison Greer, our ambassador, and
Speaker 3: Howard Lutnik, our Secretary of Commerce. These for individuals, with
Speaker 3: help from others, put what Trump and Wonderline agreed to
Speaker 3: in writing, and we did what we said we would do.
Speaker 3: It's time for Europe to do what it said it
Speaker 3: would do and stop with the amendments.
Speaker 4: Already, Okay, I suppose. In the meantime, though, what has
Speaker 4: happened is the US led war in Iran, and many
Speaker 4: European countries have been critical of that war. Also, what
Speaker 4: sort of conversations have been having with counterparts and what
Speaker 4: are those conversations been like since the start of the war,
Speaker 4: given the economic, the inflationary, the growth impact that is
Speaker 4: having now on European countries.
Speaker 3: So my conversations with the people in the the ones
Speaker 3: who need a conversation, I think some people understood this
Speaker 3: without me having to say it. But President Trump, Secretary
Speaker 3: Rubio has been very clear and President Trump as as well,
Speaker 3: that the United States believes that Iran was building up
Speaker 3: a significant resource or reserves of missiles, including long range
Speaker 3: missiles and drones, so that if anybody tried to stop
Speaker 3: their nuclear weapons program with which they were proceeding, if
Speaker 3: anybody tried to stop it, they would disrupt the world
Speaker 3: economy by tacking their neighbors in the Middle East, by
Speaker 3: shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, and doing whatever they
Speaker 3: could to prevent the world from restricting their ability to
Speaker 3: get a nuclear weapon. Now, President Trump once he had
Speaker 3: that knowledge, could could have done what other presidents and
Speaker 3: other leaders in other countries have done, which has kicked
Speaker 3: the ball down the road, or kick the can down
Speaker 3: the road and say, you know, let the next guy
Speaker 3: deal with this. Because there was no political benefit to
Speaker 3: President Trump doing what he did. The Democrats aren't going
Speaker 3: to support him no matter what he does, so that
Speaker 3: wasn't going to help. But his own party wasn't completely
Speaker 3: supportive of the President taking this move, so and with
Speaker 3: elections coming up in November, there was no political benefits.
Speaker 3: So you know, if he did this, he had a
Speaker 3: very sincere belief that this was absolutely the right thing
Speaker 3: to do, not only for the United States, but for
Speaker 3: world peace. You cannot let this crazy theocratic regime get
Speaker 3: a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 2: It would be a complete disasswer.
Speaker 1: So consequences of this as well, with energy prices that
Speaker 1: much higher, and so you know, this is something that
Speaker 1: obviously European countries are feeling very keenly. I'm wondering, do
Speaker 1: you have a sense that relations with some of those
Speaker 1: countries in the EU are irreparably damaged? Can there be
Speaker 1: an improvements?
Speaker 3: No, I don't think. I don't think relations are irreparably damaged.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 3: To get back to what I'm talking to people in
Speaker 3: the EU about, once you understand why President Trump did
Speaker 3: this and the importance of his doing it, and the
Speaker 3: really the decision being that this was absolutely what was
Speaker 3: the right thing to do. When you find countries where
Speaker 3: we've spent really billions, if not trillions of dollars defending
Speaker 3: we've had military bases in place, even since the fall
Speaker 3: of the Soviet Union, where we really didn't need to
Speaker 3: have those bases, We've continued to spend American taxpayer dollars
Speaker 3: on defense of Europe. You know, we went in the
Speaker 3: past one hundred and twenty years, We've been to Europe
Speaker 3: twice to free it from from aggressive, aggressive, militaristic people,
Speaker 3: you know, and then we can't use our bases, we
Speaker 3: can't fly over countries to do what President Trump believed
Speaker 3: was the right thing to do in with respect to Iran,
Speaker 3: and I think was unquestionably the right thing to do.
Speaker 3: It is it will, it is having an effect on prices,
Speaker 3: but look, this is nothing compared to what would have
Speaker 3: happened if a long range ballistic missile carrying a nuclear
Speaker 3: weapon had headed off towards Rome or Cyprus, or Berlin
Speaker 3: or Tel Aviv.
Speaker 1: I mean this is we know there was no indications
Speaker 1: that that was imminent either.
Speaker 3: Well, we know they had the ballistic missiles, we know
Speaker 3: they've been threatening to do it. We know they sent
Speaker 3: a missile, we know they attacked Cyprus. So I mean,
Speaker 3: so there are a lot of things we do know.
Speaker 2: You can't. You know, we don't. But in nineteen thirty five.
Speaker 3: If they if we had stopped Adolf Hitler, everybody would
Speaker 3: have claimed we don't know what would have happened if
Speaker 3: we if we hadn't stopped him.
Speaker 2: Well, the same thing here. We don't know what would
Speaker 2: have happened.
Speaker 3: You'll never know what would have happened, but we do
Speaker 3: have evidence as to what could have happened.
Speaker 1: All right, good to have you with you. I'm Bossdor,
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for being my pleasure in studio.
Speaker 1: Andrew Poster there, US Ambassador to the European Union, joining
Speaker 1: us in the Brussels Radio studio.