26
AUG
2025
The customs deal that the EU Commission under its president Ursula von der Leyen negotiated with the US administration under President Donald Trump is facing increasing criticism in the EU as well as in the member states. There can be no question of a "balanced and fair agreement" that the Commission is talking about, says Bernd Lange (SPD), chairman of the Trade Committee in the European Parliament; rather, the agreement "cements the right of the stronger", the United States. 1] The French MEP Marie-Pierre Vedrenne from the liberal group "Renew" is quoted with the assessment that the current deal will "not bring the hoped-for stability". 2] The Italian MEP Brando Benifei, a social democrat, declares that the joint declaration on which both sides have agreed is "completely unequal": while the EU is "opening its market on a large scale", the USA refused to pay any consideration. Niclas Poitiers, an economic expert at the Brussels think tank Bruegel, even considers the deal to be "a catastrophic trade agreement", which can at best be justified by specific geostrategic considerations - the military dependence of the EU on the USA. 3]
Discontent does not only trigger the fact that around two thirds of all EU supplies to the USA are subject to customs duties of at least 15 percent, while US deliveries to the EU are to be completely duty-free. In addition, the Trump administration has already broken several commitments that it had given at the end of July. The US tariffs on cars from the EU, for example, which currently amount to 27.5 percent, will not be reduced immediately - contrary to what was initially promised - but only after an official EU decision on the complete lifting of customs duties for EU imports from the USA. Washington also unilaterally extended the 50 percent tariffs on the import of steel and aluminum to more than 400 products in mid-August; motorcycles, for example, whose delivery to the United States was cleared at the beginning of the year with 2.5 percent, will not only be subject to 15 percent in the future - 50 percent tariffs on their steel and aluminum content will be added. 4] The EU Commission had previously given in not only with regard to the US Internet groups and had agreed not to charge any network usage fees from them. It had also promised US corporations "flexibilities" in the obligation to comply with EU social and environmental standards. 5]
If the customs regulations largely unilaterally favor the United States, concessions made by the EU Commission in matters of raw materials are suitable to make the EU directly dependent on US supplies. This applies in particular to the commitment of the EU Commission to import energy sources worth 750 billion US dollars from the USA by 2028.[ 6] Although the statement is declared as a non-legally binding "intent"; moreover, it is objectively nonsensical, since on the one hand the EU Commission cannot order the private energy companies to conclude contracts and on the other hand the US industry is not able to provide energy sources in the enormous volume required for export. However, the Trump administration will at least demand the expansion of EU imports of US liquefied natural gas (LNG). Already last year, the EU obtained a good 45 percent of its total liquefied gas from the USA. 7] Commission President von der Leyen has promised to completely replace the gas imports from Russia that are still made today with US LNG. In 2024, around 19 percent of the EU's natural gas imports - LNG plus pipeline gas - came from Russia.[ 8] If the share falls completely to the USA, the EU states become completely dependent on the Trump administration.
A comparable dependence on the USA threatens in the medium to long term also in the rare earths. China currently has an almost monopoly on these; it is currently using this in the economic war with the United States to slow down the uninhibited escalating US attacks. 9] The Trump administration has therefore begun to push the promotion and the - much more complex - processing of rare earths in its own country. For this purpose, the Pentagon is taking a 15 percent stake in the company MP Materials, which is mining rare earths in the Mine Mountain Pass (California) and is starting to develop the processing. The Pentagon also supports MP Materials by guaranteeing a minimum price of $110 per kilogram for certain rare earths (neodymium, praseodymium) over ten years - twice as much as MP Materials collects today. In addition, it guarantees to find buyers for the raw materials.[ 10] Already in July it was reported that Washington was also pushing companies in Europe to order rare earths from MP Materials - and thus actually help finance the US mining company. The current customs deal explicitly provides for joint independence for critical raw materials from third countries - meaning China. 11] However, this would tie the EU a further bit closer to the USA.
Washington is also working towards this by obliging the EU to make agreements on investment and export controls vis-à-vis third countries in the new tariff agreement; this also refers above all to measures against China. 12] Currently, the ultra-right government of Italy is pressing under the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is quite close to Trump. If Rome welcomed investments from China, especially after the financial crisis in 2008, to strengthen the faltering Italian industry, Meloni is now trying to push them out of the country. An example is the tire manufacturer Pirelli, a traditional Italian company in which the Chinese state-owned company Sinochem holds 37 percent of the shares. Since the Trump administration threatens sales restrictions on the US market, Meloni is looking for ways to force Sinochem to sell its Pirelli shares. 13] In the meantime, it has been possible to reduce Shanghai Electric's shares in Ansaldo Energia, a powerful power plant operator, from 40 to 0.5 percent; but this is still a thorn in Washington's side, it is said.[ 14] The Trump administration wants such an approach from the entire EU. After its complete economic separation from Russia, it thus loses the last real alternative to transatlantic business.
According to reports, the Trump administration, which rightly interprets the EU Commission's sweeping slump as a weakness, is now preparing the next blow and is considering imposing sanctions against representatives of the EU or its member states responsible for implementing the rules of the Digital Services Act. The reason is that the US Internet companies are annoying by the EU rules for online platforms - they are obliged in the EU to remove openly discriminatory, Nazi-glorifying and otherwise seditious content from social media, for example. The Trump administration, which has always been agitating against the Digital Services Act, is toying with the plan to increase the pressure with the imposition of sanctions, as the Reuters news agency reported yesterday, Monday.[ 15] Washington's attempt to set the EU entirely to its interests will enter the next round.
More on the topic: In the interest of the German automotive industry.
[1] "There can be no question of a fair deal". bernd-lange.de 21.08.2025.
[2], [3] Cédric Vallet: Droits de douane : les Etats-Unis et l'Union Européenne finalisent leur nouveau cadre commercial. lemonde.fr 22.08.2025.
[4] Lazar Backovic, Jakob Hanke Vela, Franz Hubik: Zero tariffs for US goods - Europe's risky deal with Trump. handelsblatt.com 23.08.2025.
[5], [6] Joint Statement on a United States – European Union framework on an agreement on reciprocal, fair and balanced trade. policy.trade.ec.europa.eu 21.08.2025.
[7] Anne-Sophie Corbeau: Bridging the EU-US Trade Gap with US LNG Is More Complex than It Sounds. energypolicy.columbia.edu 20.02.2025.
[8] EU spends more on Russian liquefied natural gas. tagesschau.de 19.08.2025.
[9] S. on this "Maximum confrontational".
[10] Roland Lindner, Gustav Theile: Trump wants "champion" for rare earths. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 17.07.2025.
[11], [12] Joint Statement on a United States – European Union framework on an agreement on reciprocal, fair and balanced trade.
[13], [14] Meloni pushes Chinese investors to withdraw. handelsblatt.com 12.08.2025.
[15] Humeyra Pamuk: Exclusive: Trump administration weighs sanctions on officials implementing EU tech law, sources say. reuters.com 25.08.2025.