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Politico (31 October 2021)

ROME — Europe isn't thrilled about the terms of Saturday's trade truce with the U.S. but EU officials finally conceded it was worth accepting Washington's conditions in order to shift focus to the common enemy: China. 

The ceasefire is intended to end the bitter trade war that former U.S. President Donald Trump ignited in 2018 by slapping high tariffs on EU steel and aluminum on the grounds that they were a threat to America's national security. While Saturday's deal removes those tariffs, Brussels is still angry that the legal basis for Trump's duties — the supposed European security threat to America — still remains in place and is being used to place limits on EU metal exports. 

The clash over metals has been one of the darkest clouds looming over transatlantic relations in recent years and one of the chief reasons to end it was an increasing desire among European and American officials to cooperate on combating what they see as massive overcapacity in Chinese steel mills, fuelled by government largesse.

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