BRUSSELS — The EU has signaled it won’t give in to pressure from Washington to tear up its green rules in order to firm up a deal on tariffs, the bloc’s top trade official has told member countries.
Speaking during a closed-door meeting of ambassadors Wednesday, Sabine Weyand, who heads the European Commission’s Directorate for Trade, said the executive will not use a document drafted by the U.S. as the basis for its negotiations, according to five diplomats and officials granted anonymity to discuss the restricted meeting with POLITICO.
The paper, developed by President Donald Trump’s administration, would commit Brussels to dropping rules requiring American firms to produce plans to fight climate change and end environmental and human rights violations in their supply chains. The Financial Times reported Wednesday that in the document, the White House branded the legislation “serious and unwarranted regulatory over-reach” that “imposes significant economic and regulatory burdens on U.S. companies.”
The diplomats and officials told POLITICO that the commission does not intend to act on the criticism in the document, which was drawn up after Trump agreed to a handshake trade deal with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in July at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. Instead, the EU executive intends to act in line with the terms of a subsequent joint statement that does not foresee those concessions.
