EU pushes back as US revives trade pressure on bloc

Filed 1w ago · Via thelocal.se · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Jack de Nijs for Anefo · CC0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The US ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, publicly demanded Brussels align its corporate sustainability and human rights supply-chain laws with last year's EU-US trade deal, warning of unspecified actions if the EU doesn't comply.

The European Commission responded that its regulatory framework and autonomy are not up for negotiation, even as it called the ongoing exchange with Washington "constructive."

Separately, a White House report flagged the EU alongside Mexico, Canada and Japan as a risk for enabling Chinese goods to dodge US tariffs via transshipment, though the report itself noted the EU's risk was embedded in otherwise legitimate trade.

The EU has already narrowed both sustainability directives under business pressure, but Washington says that concession isn't enough.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Nothing captures the current state of transatlantic diplomacy like an ambassador airing tariff grievances on a social media platform, then being told, politely but firmly, that sovereignty isn't a bargaining chip. The EU's own report caveat — that the transshipment risk is mostly legitimate trade — suggests the alarm was calibrated more for domestic audiences than actual customs enforcement.

Source: Read the original at thelocal.se → Scored: Wagon Wheel · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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