Analysis-EU struggles to bring Trump to the table on tariffs #CanadaFinance

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – As one of the European Union’s top negotiators, Sabine Weyand has battled Britain over Brexit and driven tough trade talks around the world.

But as Europe seeks a deal to avert further U.S. tariffs, the EU’s most senior civil servant for trade acknowledges one fundamental obstacle: Donald Trump’s endgame remains a mystery.

“And that, of course, is an issue,” Weyand, the German national whose European Commission department coordinates trade policy for the EU’s 27 countries, told an event this month of the struggle to work out what might placate the U.S. president.

When Trump was re-elected last November, European officials had hoped they could talk him down from a trade war – as they did in his first term with largely symbolic concessions that kept the 1.6 trillion euros ($1.75 trillion) annual transatlantic trade in goods and services generally intact.

But two months into his second term, the U.S. administration is showing little appetite to deal with officials in the Commission, despite its mandate on trade matters.

In the past week, Washington has imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, the EU has set out plans for retaliation, and Trump has threatened 200% tariffs on EU wine and spirits. The U.S. president has promised further tariffs in April.

Trump has hosted several EU leaders already but not Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, underlining how he prefers dealing with other country heads, and not the EU – a body he said last month was invented to “screw” the United States.

“It is clear that the Trump administration would rather not engage with the EU at all,” said Aslak Berg, research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think-tank.

Weyand said the EU had made no detailed offer to Washington because the U.S. justification for the threatened tariffs kept changing, making their grievances hard to address.

“Is the motive for the tariffs protection of domestic production? Is it to get countries to change certain policies? Is it to attract investment? Is it to replace income taxes by tariffs?” she said, speaking at the event.

Unable to completely bypass the Commission on trade, U.S. officials did meet Maros Sefcovic, the European Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, in Washington last month. He is the only commissioner so far to have had access.

Aware of Trump’s complaints about the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with the EU, he suggested the bloc could buy more U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) and discuss lowering car imports when he met U.S. counterparts a month ago.