Will US and EU issues are threatening some agreements? Financial market agreements and tax havens may discontinue if President Trump’s comments are to be believed. German weekly magazine, Der Spiegel, reported that the US may stop cooperating in multinational discussions. This particularly relates to regulation of financial markets and tax havens.
The statement was reported to have been made ahead of next week’s G-20 summit meeting in Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel referred to this US and EU issue in the German parliament. She stated that most of the G-20 countries and the Trump administration had “stubborn differences” regarding climate change and trade.
According to Der Spiegel, the US gave signals that it may discontinue cooperation on tax havens and financial market regulation. Coordination among G-20 countries on tax issues and financial regulations began shortly after the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
It is known that the EU and the US Trump administration have significant differences of opinion on several issues. The major of these are climate change and trade issues. President Trump announced earlier this month that he would pull the US out of an international climate change agreement. He also threatened to take measures regarding steel trade between the US and the Europe prior to the G-20 summit.
There have also been rumors that President Trump would slap tariffs on a number of EU products if it failed to provide an open market in Europe to US hormone-fed meat. It seems extremely unlikely that the EU would do this – if the story were true. Politics by threat never work in Europe. These US and EU issues will only increase if either party makes such threats.
It seems unlikely that either party will resolve these US and EU issues to the satisfaction of both prior to the July 7-8 meeting. It also seems unlikely that the EU would bow to American trade demands. In an attempt to find a resolution to this problem, Angela Merkel has sent her economic advisor, Lars-Hendrick Roeller, to participate in Washington talks with US officials. If these fail, then it is unlikely that the EU would accede to US demands.
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