Biden looks to ease EU trade tensions ahead of Putin summit

President Joe Biden is seeking to tamp down trade tensions with European allies as he spends one last day consulting with Western democracies ahead of his highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After a pair of summits with Group of Seven world leaders in the U.K. and then NATO allies in Brussels, Biden meets Tuesday with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

He also met with King Philippe of Belgium and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. Biden signed the guest book in the working palace at the meeting. 

He will use his remaining time in Brussels to try and recruit the EU as an ally against Russia and China, but skeptical European officials want him to end trade hostilities that started during the Trump administration first.  

Biden will meet with the top EU officials at a moment when the continent’s leaders are becoming impatient that the American president has not yet addressed his predecessor Donald Trump’s 2018 decision to impose import taxes on foreign steel and aluminum. 

Brussels hit back with counter-tariffs on 2.8 billion euros worth of iconic US products, including bourbon whiskey, jeans, and Harley-Davidson motorbikes. 

Belgium's King Philippe, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and President Joe Biden pose for a photo as they meet at the Royal Palace, in Brussels

Belgium’s King Philippe, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and President Joe Biden pose for a photo as they meet at the Royal Palace, in Brussels

President Joe Biden is seeking to tamp down trade tensions with European allies during his last day in Brussels

President Joe Biden is seeking to tamp down trade tensions with European allies during his last day in Brussels

Biden will talk trade with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel

Biden will talk trade with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel

There’s also a longstanding dispute over how much of a government subsidy each side unfairly provides for its aircraft manufacturing giant – Boeing in the United States and Airbus in the EU.

Biden isn’t expected to take action on the tariffs before heading to Geneva later Tuesday. He bristled that he needed more time to address the matter when asked by a reporter about the tariffs at his news conference at the end of the G7 on Sunday. ‘A hundred and twenty days,’ Biden said, underestimating his time in office by weeks. ‘Give me a break. Need time.’

Still, White House officials think they can build more goodwill with Europe ahead of the Putin face-to-face meeting.

EU officials set similar expectations. 

Biden’s two-hour stopover at EU headquarters, tucked between a NATO summit and his sit down Putin, ‘is not going to settle everything but diplomacy is back’, a senior EU official said on Monday. 

The official said both sides had been ‘sweating’ to find common ground on trade ahead of the meeting and give a clear sign that Trump-era battles will soon be behind them. 

To that end, Biden, Michel and von der Leyen are expected to announce the creation of a joint trade and technology council, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

The official said that trans-Atlantic council would work on coordinating standards for artificial intelligence, quantum computing and bio-technologies, as well as coordinating efforts on bolstering supply chain resilience. Biden is appointing Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to co-chair the U.S. side of the effort.

The U.S.-EU summit is also expected to include a communique at its conclusion that will address concerns about China’s provocative behavior, according to the official.

Tuesday’s statement would follow a NATO summit communique on Monday that declared China a constant security challenge and said the Chinese are working to undermine the global rules-based order. On Sunday, the G-7 called out what it said were China’s forced labor practices and other human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in the western Xinjiang province.

After his meetings with EU officials, Biden heads to Geneva to prepare for Wednesday’s meeting with Putin.  

Biden also will meet with King Philippe of Belgium

Biden also will meet with King Philippe of Belgium

Tuesday afternoon President Biden heads to Geneva to prepare for his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin

Tuesday afternoon President Biden heads to Geneva to prepare for his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin

Since taking office in January, Biden has repeatedly pressed Putin to take action to stop Russian-originated cyberattacks on companies and governments in the U.S. and around the globe and decried the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. 

Biden also has publicly aired intelligence that suggests – albeit with low to moderate confidence – that Moscow offered bounties to the Taliban to target U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Both Biden and Putin have described the U.S.-Russia relationship as being at an all-time low.

The Europeans are keen to set up a ‘high-level dialogue’ on Russia with the United States to counter what they say is Moscow´s drift into authoritarianism and anti-Western sentiment.

At the same time, the 27-nation bloc is deeply divided in its approach to Moscow. Russia is the EU’s biggest natural gas supplier, and plays a key role in a series of international conflicts and key issues, including the Iran nuclear deal and conflicts in Syria and Libya.

The hope is that Biden’s meeting with Putin on Wednesday might pay dividends, and no one in Brussels wants to undermine the show of international unity that has been on display at the G-7 and NATO summits, according to EU officials.

source: dailymail.co.uk