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在线翻译:
szdaily -> World Economy -> 
US squares up for trade brawl with EU
    2020-01-16  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

THE European Union’s new trade chief will be in Washington for the next three days trying to head off a transatlantic commercial war on several fronts and the prospects for success look slim.

Phil Hogan is due to meet U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and other American officials today during a visit that follows a general fraying of ties in recent months between the world’s biggest economic partners.

While U.S. President Donald Trump has held back on a threat to hit European cars and auto parts with tariffs that are much dreaded in the EU, both sides have revived old disputes and triggered new ones as a result of fundamental disagreements over trade policy.

A high-stakes security standoff between the West and Iran adds to the complexity and gloom because Trump’s stance toward Tehran is much more hardline than Europe’s. This raises the possibility that the White House will use transatlantic commercial questions — and the option of American tariffs — as leverage against EU allies when it comes to Iran.

“The gloves are off,” said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of the European Centre of International Political Economy in Brussels. “There is going to be a lot of fireworks before any underlying progress in resolving U.S.-EU policy differences over trade.”

Trump continues to unsettle Europe three years after entering office with an “America First” agenda that has shaken the global order the United States was instrumental in building after World War II. The EU has gone from being perplexed to steeling itself for more disruptions as it fights to uphold multilateralism, a defining principle for the bloc.

The U.S.-EU tensions so far have played out largely in the shadow of a trade war that Trump instigated against China with far bigger economic ramifications. As it happens, the United States and China plan to de-escalate their battle during Hogan’s visit by signing an agreement in Washington.

“It just feels like we are now entering what I call the transatlantic trade and tariff tantrum,” said Heather Conley, a former U.S. diplomat now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “This is going to be a pretty intense period, I fear.”

The troubles started in 2018 when the Trump administration invoked national security considerations to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum from Europe. As a U.S. military ally, the EU was infuriated and promptly retaliated with levies on U.S. goods. (SD-Agencies)

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