EU prepares measures to get closer to Trump

The European Union may increase purchases of military and agricultural products in the United States for the sake of building a working relationship with the future administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, unnamed sources in Brussels said.

A group of European officials have been analysing Trump's position on trade relations with the EU since the summer, Caliber.Az reports, citing The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

As a result, it was found that the EU may consider buying more agricultural and defence products from the US. In case Washington increases duties on European goods, the European Commission will respond with pressure on sensitive sectors of the US economy.

According to the publication's sources in Brussels, reaching out to the Trump administration ‘will require a package of measures that goes beyond trade’. The EU will have to shoulder much of the financial burden of supporting Kyiv and increase spending on the purchase of US-made military equipment.

As the WSJ notes, future relations between the U.S. and Europe will depend in part on whether European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen can “cool Trump's ire toward the European Union.”

With Trump gearing up for his return to the White House, von der Leyen will start her second five-year term at the helm of the EU’s executive body on Sunday. She has been in the job long enough to experience the first Trump presidency, and her team is taking lessons from that time: Expect the unexpected and identify common interests.

In her first year in the Commission job—Trump’s last full 12 months in office—the EU landed a tariff-cutting trade understanding with the Trump administration and started a joint dialogue on China, which is seen by both leaders as a potential threat.

Von der Leyen, a 66-year-old former German defence minister who was once seen as a likely successor to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, never strays from message discipline. 

Her organized, tight control of the Brussels bureaucracy abhors any hint of chaos. 

Von der Leyen is lining up a new European defence plan that could pour billions of euros into the bloc’s industry and common defence projects. But Europe’s national governments, not the EU, largely manage the purse strings for Ukraine and defence, so Brussels can only nudge the bloc toward meeting Trump’s expectations.

The EU already has committed up to 35 billion euros, or $37 billion, toward a Group of Seven loan for Ukraine and still has most of a 50 billion euro package of Ukraine budget support to disburse.

On defence, two-thirds of North Atlantic Treaty Organization members now meet the requisite 2% of gross domestic product military spending the alliance targets. Earlier this past week, incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told CNBC that 2% was the “bare minimum.” Driving targets higher could create deep problems for some European governments, which face a toxic mix of political instability, weak growth and high debt.

Trump has made clear that he wants to use tariffs to alter trade flows and secure concessions from governments. Last Monday, he said he would impose steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico until they address cross-border flows of migrants and drugs.

By Khagan Isayev