Rocky Start, Grim Prospects In Trump's Trade Talks With The EU

To get Europe to the negotiating table, Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on vehicle exports from the European Union. With such a rocky kick-off to their trade talks, how likely is it that both parties will sort out their differences and come to a final agreement? 

Spoiler: It won't be easy. 

Trump says he wants zero tariffs, zero subsidies, and zero non-tariff barriers. For the uninitiated, non-tariff barriers is the technical term used by trade experts to refer to restrictions that result from regulations, prohibitions, conditions, or specific market requirements that make imports/exports more costly.

In this episode of PIIE's Trade Talks, Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown discuss the prospects for trade negotiations and the EU, and the viability of meeting Trump's demands. 

They discuss it with the Executive Director of the International Trade Center, Arancha González, who delves into the history of trade frictions between the Trans-Atlantic partners, how previous negotiations have started and floundered, and how that weighs on the prospects of fresh talks towards a bilateral deal.

Gonzalez says reducing barriers is, in general, a good idea. But her comments point to the difficulties of striking such a deal in practice: A number of sectors will likely oppose losing crucial protections on both sides of the Atlantic.