WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump will have plenty to discuss when he meets Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a face-to-face that follows months of broadsides from the White House about European tariffs.
Juncker is the latest European official to travel to Washington this year with the goal of easing trans-Atlantic tensions and heading off a trade war with the United States.
The meeting comes during a rocky period for U.S.-European relations following Trump's appearance at a NATO summit this month where he blasted the leaders of Germany and the United Kingdom. He described Europe as a "foe" in an interview with CBS and was then widely criticized for being too deferential to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the main tension underlying the meeting Wednesday will be trade, and specifically U.S. tariffs imposed in May on European steel and aluminum. Trump has also threatened to impose duties on European cars imported into the United States.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday morning, Trump said it would take longer for the U.S. to make trade deals "when you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation."
"Be cool," Trump wrote. "The end result will be worth it!"
Speaking to a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday, Trump suggested the meeting at the White House was prompted by his threat of increased tariffs.
"What the European Union is doing to us is incredible. How bad," Trump said.
"I said, 'You have to change.' They didn't want to change. I said, 'OK, good. We're going to tariff your cars,'" Trump said.
"They said, 'When can we show up? When can we be there? Would tomorrow be OK?'"
A spokesman for the European Commission said this week Juncker would not bring a concrete offer on trade to the White House but is instead interested in a dialogue.
“I do not wish to enter into a discussion about mandates, offers because there are no offers," commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters, according to Reuters. "This is a discussion, it is a dialogue and it is an opportunity to talk and to stay engaged in dialogue."
Trump is not negotiating from an unassailable position. Concerns within the GOP about his trade policy burst into public view again Tuesday when his plan to protect U.S. farmers from retaliatory Chinese tariffs with $12 billion in subsidies met with sharp criticism from within his own party.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., has generally been willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on the tariffs, as long as they don’t last too long. But the Trump administration's announcement Tuesday prompted Meadows to split with the president.
"I’m not saying we need $12 billion to get” to a fair trade agreement, Meadows said. “I’m not in favor of this particular policy, it’s not something that I support.”
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C, chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, told USA TODAY that he felt the administration’s tariff policy was “very risky.” To top it off with such a large bailout to keep farmers afloat, “concerned” him. Walker said he’d like to hear Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro game out their long-term plan.
“I think there will be some pushback as far as some of us wanting to know ‘hey, play this out for us,'" Walker said.
WFXT
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
