New EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan arrives in Washington this week on what could be an impossible mission — resetting the world’s largest investment and trade relationship after three years of President Trump’s tariffs
New European Union Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan arrives in Washington this week on what could be an impossible mission — resetting the world’s largest investment and trade relationship after three years of President Donald Trump’s trade-rattling tariffs.
"Phil Hogan is a serious man, who I think takes his job very seriously and his belief and feeling in the EU is strong," said former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who sparred with Hogan during unsuccessful talks on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership pursued by the Obama administration. "He is a tough negotiator, but fair."
This week’s visit is Hogan’s “chance to meet with Cabinet members like Bob Lighthizer and Secretary Wilbur Ross, and I think to take the temperature of what's possible," said Myron Brilliant, executive vice president and head of international affairs at U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That’s important “both strategically and also in the sense that until we know what the U.K.-EU trade relationship is going to look like, it's going to be very tough for both the U.K. and the EU to negotiate with us,” Rashish said.
Lighthizer also has proposed raising tariffs to 100 percent on $7.5 billion worth of goods from a broader array of European countries in a separate dispute over European government support for aerospace giant Airbus. Unlike the tax case, that potential U.S. action is sanctioned by the WTO. All those disputes have the potential to get U.S.-EU trade relations off to a messy start with the new European leadership.
Another former U.S. government official, who asked not to be identified to speak frankly, saw an opportunity for Hogan and Lighthizer to work well together, even when the EU is unwilling or unable to meet U.S. demands.“[Hogan’s] a person of great personal charm — he’s Irish after all — but also pretty blunt. ... I think Bob appreciates people who are well-prepared and professional. He is business-oriented and not always big on small talk.
“We need to work with the EU to strengthen the global trading system through the World Trade Organization and other means. We need to build consensus around some of the new technology issues, standards and regulation and we need to work on third party issues, whether it’s China or elsewhere,” he added.
“The problem is that many of the concerns being raised by the Europeans are not science-based, they are culturally-based,” Vilsack said, referring to Europe’s aversion to genetically modified crops, beef produced with artificial growth hormones and chicken carcasses cleansed with a chlorine-based wash. “That makes it really hard.”
Lighthizer, for his part, has identified reducing the U.S. goods trade deficit with the EU as an area that he wants to tackle in any negotiation. That trade gap could reach $175 billion this year, the highest on record, even as the U.S. deficit with China has shrunk significantly because of the tariffs that Trump has imposed on Beijing.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to complete those complex talks covering a variety of business sectors and issue by the end of December, putting a major drain on both EU and UK negotiating resources.
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