BY PHILIP BLENKINSOP AND JAN STRUPCZEWSKI
BRUSSELS— When US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week said Switzerland and Britain had jumped to the front of the queue for a trade deal with the United States, he warned the European Union it was moving “much slower”. Brussels says it is not overly worried.
When it comes to trade, the EU is confident its size gives it an advantage. One of the world’s top three economies, the bloc won’t be pushed around and wants a better deal with Washington than the trade agreement struck by Britain, senior EU officials say.
However, the clock is ticking. At stake is a $1.7 trillion trading relationship and the EU wants to avoid a doubling of “reciprocal” tariffs in July and avert a full-blown transatlantic trade war.
“We do not feel weak. We do not feel under undue pressure to accept a deal, which would not be fair for us,” the EU’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic said last week.
Sefcovic was speaking before Bessent made his remarks in Geneva, where Washington and Beijing agreed to slash tariffs of over 100 percent and put the brakes on their own trade war. Nonetheless, the stance in Brussels has not changed.
