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Manfred Weber to Washington: ‘Don’t play with us’ on trade

Center-right candidate for Commission president says EU won’t allow itself to be bullied by Trump.

Manfred Weber, the European People’s Party’s lead candidate to be Commission president, warned Washington not to “play with” the EU when it comes to trade.

“It must be clear that when we sit together, we are working together as partners on an equal, level playing field,” Weber said at an event hosted by the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.

“We cannot be forced to do something. That must be clear. So if there is one action, one concrete [trade] activity against us — steel, Airbus or car industry — then Europe has to answer, no doubt about this. And that must be a decisive and a strong answer. So, don’t play with us.”

His comments come a day after the U.S. released a list of $11 billion worth of European goods — including wine, cheese and helicopters — that could be hit with punitive tariffs in a long-running dispute over subsidies for airplane manufacturer Airbus.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that the U.S. “will now put tariffs on $11 billion of EU products,” and accused the EU of having “taken advantage of the U.S. on trade for many years.” However, it is up to a World Trade Organization arbitrator to define the exact level of allowed retaliation.

Still, Weber said Trump’s protectionist trade policies offer “a huge opportunity” for the EU to ink more trade deals.

“Having the Trump behavior in mind, having the uncertainty at global level in mind, there is a huge opportunity in today’s world and also in the next five years for us, to find a lot of partners at the global level who want to trade with us,” Weber said.

“You see really the will of all the partners who see the American problem … that they are ready now to engage and invest really in the EU relationship,” he added. “We are the second biggest market … If you have problems in America, everybody wants to go to Europe.”

Despite trade tensions, Weber stressed that Brussels and Washington “are still strong partners” that share common values, and expressed hope for successful EU-U.S. trade talks: “We are partners, we want to offer a free tariff area together where we really take away all the tariffs.”