Dear journalist,
commenting on the so far inconclusive negotiations between the EU and the US over a so-called “Global Arrangement for Sustainable Steel and Aluminium”, Reinhard Bütikofer, transatlantic spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament says:
“In the run-up to the summit, it seemed that the US and the EU, unable to overcome important differences, would agree on a politically threadbare nothingburger just to cover up fundamental divergence. The threat, however, from the US side that they would want to install a snapback mechanism that could put back in place exactly the same illegal tariffs which the negotiations had been designed to overcome, is a provocation.
While the Biden administration keeps preaching the need to align with and to work with allies, it is undercutting the credibility of such declarations through its trade policy. The US cannot have it both ways: either we stick to a rules-based international trade order, then those rules must also apply to the US; or the US want to reserve the right to do to allies whatever they please, then they should drop the propaganda line about the rules-based order.”
Best regards
Reinhard Bütikofer
