Timid enthusiasm and concerns: agreement on tariffs gets businesses and unions excited up to a point

Brussels – Cautious optimism from the business world, concern from the trade unions. The EU-US tariff agreement does not seem to be breaking through among social partners. Certainly, the industry applauds an agreement that “prevents a tariff escalation that would be extremely detrimental to businesses and consumers on both sides,” comments Fredrik Persson, president of BusinessEurope, the association of European Confederations of Industry. “We still have to examine the details, and we hope that a solution will soon be found for important sectors that seem to be excluded from the agreement. A clarification, this one, that seems to raise concerns nonetheless. 

Among the excluded sectors is certainly steel, which is the subject of a separate negotiation that needs to be done and closed. Axel Eggert, general manager of Eurofer, wants to be optimistic: “We have little information so far, but if traditional EU export volumes could enter the US without a tariff and the EU and US are ringfencing against global steel over capacity, as Ursula von der Leyen said, then this would be a promising start​.” What is certain for the industry, he adds, is that “European steelmakers cannot wait any longer to remove the 50% tariffs on the traditional export volumes to the US.” 

However, the opinion of Eurochambre, the association of Chambers of Commerce, is different: “The least painful solution has been reached,” says President Vladimír Dlouhý.” Although tariffs of any level are always an obstacle to trade and thus growth, this agreement provides welcome stability for European companies directly or indirectly involved in trade with the United States. 

The message coming from the trade union world is the need for a protection and incentive mechanism. “After the trade agreement, the EU urgently needs a plan to protect jobs and production in the EU,” thundered ETUC, the European Trade Union Confederation. It is the conviction of the general secretary, Esther Lynch, that the agreement reached “places the responsibility on the Commission to introduce accompanying measures that protect workers and their industries from the duties it has signed up to.” In the background is the risk of an agreement that “channels European funds and job opportunities out of Europe,” which is unacceptable to the trade unions. “The EU institutions cannot make workers pay for their inability to stand up to Donald Trump,” criticises Lynch.