US administration presses EU for big-tech: “More balanced rules in exchange for steel deal”

Brussels – A new chapter in the tug-of-war between Washington and Brussels over the EU’s current digital legislation. The US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, has laid the cards on the table: if the European Commission wants discounts on the steel and aluminium tariffs in force across the Atlantic, a “balanced approach” is needed to protect American big-techs. 

The team that negotiated the damning tariff deal with the EU this summer—led by Lutnick and ambassador Jamieson Greer—returned to the fray today (24 November), at the meeting of the trade ministers of the 27. Invited by the Danish EU Council Presidency for an update on the implementation of the trade agreement—Minister Lars Rasmussen spoke of “a very constructive and frank discussion”—they dictated their conditions for lowering tariffs by 50 per cent on European steel imports, not only to the EU Trade Commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, but also to the executive vice-president responsible for digital technologies, Henna Virkkunen. The latter submitted last week a  package for the simplification of the Data Protection Regulation and the Artificial Intelligence Act that already winks at US multinationals.

“The US has had considerable concerns about the Digital Markets Act and similar regulations in the EU for years: thresholds are often set to the point where almost exclusively US companies are affected. Enforcement is quite aggressive. Sometimes, complying with the law can become a challenge,” Greer explained at a press point on the sidelines. The US administration wants to “just make sure we monitor our companies that have global business models,” make sure “that their global revenues are not impacted” by EU laws, and that “various other aspects can be changed to meet their and our concerns.” 

The key to breaking through the EU’s resistance is offered directly by Šefčovič, who emphasised: “It is no secret that our work on steel and derivatives is of particular importance.” Šefčovič weighed up the “rather impressive figures” on the scales: since the beginning of 2025, the EU has bought $200 billion worth of energy from the US, the share of US LNG in EU imports has increased from 45 to 60 per cent, and European investments in the US economy since January amount to €254 billion. 

But that is not enough. Once exposed on steel, it is Lutnick who closes: ‘Our suggestion is that the European Union and its trade ministers think deeply, try to analyse their digital rules, try to find a balance, not to eliminate them, but to find a balanced approach that works with us. And if they can find this balanced approach—which I believe they can—then we, with them, will handle the steel and aluminium issues and deal with them together.”