U.S., Europe Fail to Resolve Long-Running Tariff Dispute.

"WASHINGTON -- The U.S. and Europe failed to agree on a path for eliminating steel and aluminum tariffs ahead of a summit in Washington on Friday, leaving unresolved a trade dispute that risks becoming a growing irritant between the allied economies ahead of next year's U.S. election.

Officials are seeking to move beyond a spat over metal tariffs that were imposed in 2018 by President Donald Trump on national-security grounds. President Biden paused the tariffs for most European steel and aluminum two years ago as part of a bid to reset relations between the two economies, and the U.S. and EU said they would seek a new arrangement to replace the levies and tackle concerns about an oversupply of steel on global markets.

But both sides remained far apart in their views during talks that continued until the day before the summit, people familiar with the matter said. U.S. and EU officials said Friday they would continue their discussions over the next two months. Officials had previously set Jan. 1 as the date when the Trump-era tariffs were due to kick back in if no new deal was reached.

A person familiar with the talks said the Biden administration had signaled in negotiations that it didn't intend to reimpose the national-security tariffs and would look at extending the current freeze in the dispute if no deal was reached in January.

A separate arrangement that could offer European producers an exemption to made-in-America rules linked to electric-vehicle battery subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act also remained unresolved on Friday. The U.S. and EU said they made progress and would continue to work on the issue over the coming weeks.

In a statement issued after the summit, U.S. and European leaders sought to present a united front, highlighting their cooperation on Ukraine and pledging to continue their discussions on steel and aluminum. "We are more united than ever," the statement said.

The U.S. and Europe are close geopolitical allies, and their policies have converged in some areas in recent years, including in their handling of sanctions against Russia and concerns over China's economic aspirations. But officials have struggled to resolve thorny bilateral issues including the Trump-era steel and aluminum tariffs and U.S. clean-technology subsidies, which some European officials view as discriminatory.

The EU fears that if the two sides don't resolve bilateral trade issues before the next U.S. election, those problems could worsen. Trump, who currently leads the race for the Republican nomination, has threatened to impose new tariffs if he is elected again.

Still, European officials said Friday they didn't see the stalemate as a cause for panic. Both sides are still working together to resolve the issue, an EU diplomat said.

Officials had warned ahead of the summit that a final deal on steel and aluminum was unlikely but said at the time they still aimed to reach a political understanding that could lay the groundwork for resolving the dispute.

One of the challenges in reaching a deal on steel and aluminum tariffs is whether an agreement would extend the current tariff truce rather than settling it definitively. European officials have sought to have the U.S. tariffs withdrawn completely before the next U.S. election, while U.S. officials have proposed a deal that would extend the current suspension, with the possibility of a pledge to end the tariffs in the future." [1]

We are more united than ever on Ukraine and split widely apart on everything else. Actually, we do not care about everything else, except Ukraine. It is an obsession of ours. We all will go to a defeat in our elections, shouting about Ukraine.

1. U.S. News: U.S., Europe Fail to Resolve Long-Running Tariff Dispute. Kim Mackrael.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 21 Oct 2023: A.2.