Washington DC, 20 February 2025
Let me start by appreciating the hospitality by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick as well as US Trade Representative-designate Jameson Greer and NEC Director Kevin Hasset. We spent some four hours together, including in the impressive Roosevelt Room in the White House.
Coming here, I stressed that while we will protect European interests, we seek constructive dialogue to avoid the unnecessary pain of measures and countermeasures.
Therefore, the genuine engagement that we had yesterday was important:
- to reiterate how massive the EU-US economic partnership is, worth some USD 1.7 trillion;
- to have a better grasp of some of the underlying issues that the U.S. administration wants to address;
- and how we can move forward, by fostering reciprocity, fairness and mutual benefits.
I think that we both realise that we share some of the same challenges – for instance, on global overcapacities driven by non-market practices – and that the EU is part of the solution, rather than a problem.
We would also mutually benefit if we integrated supply chains of strategic importance.
And where we don’t see eye to eye, I believe we should give it our best shot to solve it in a way that benefits businesses and people on both side of the Atlantic. As the U.S. is watching over their interests, so is the European Union.
Thank you.
Source – EU Commission