EU summit reveals sharp divisions within Europe and tensions with US
By
Johannes Stern
10 March 2017
The annual Euro Summit meeting of the 28 EU heads of government, which began Thursday, was dominated by sharp transatlantic tensions and a deep crisis of the European Union (EU).
Conflicts between Germany and the United States intensified ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s first meeting with President Donald Trump next week. On Monday, Peter Navarro, Trump’s economic adviser, described the US’s trade deficit with Germany as a “serious matter” and as “one of the most difficult issues” for American trade policy.
“I think that it would be useful to have candid discussions with Germany about ways that we could possibly get that deficit reduced outside the boundaries and restrictions that they claim that they are under,” Navarro said in Washington.
Germany has responded to Washington’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric by attempting to bind Europe together under its leadership and prepare “for a trade war with the United States,” as the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper put it.
The European powers are seeking to exploit Trump’s cancellation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to expand economically into Asian markets. In a piece entitled “Europe counters Trump” the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on the draft statement for the summit: “At their meeting in Brussels, the EU heads of government want to stand up to Trump’s ‘America first policy’…and are determined to fill the hole that the United States will leave behind following Trump’s withdrawal from world trade.”
The EU is striving to rapidly conclude a trade agreement with Japan, which is the second-largest Asian economy after China, and is currently negotiating free trade deals around…