EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom met US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer yesterday. Malmstrom said the meeting focused on regulatory cooperations issues, plus ways for EU to import more soybeans and LNG from the US. She also told Lighthizer the EU’s willingness to negotiation a trade deal, but that would be limited to industrial goods, excluding agriculture. However, Malmstrom noted that the scope of the talks cannot be defined until early 2019. USTR will have to complete its consultation with Congress. EU will also need to receive negotiating mandate from member states.
On US auto tariff threats, Malmstrom said EU already has a list of retaliation targets ready. She said “it could be cars, it could be agriculture, it could be industrial products – it could be everything. And we will do that, but hope we don’t have to get to that situation.”
