A Top House Democrat Prods Biden to Reopen E.U. Trade Talks

Despite deep historic ties, the United States and Europe have not always had an easy trading relationship. The governments have argued for decades over tariffs, farm subsidies and food safety standards, and efforts to reach a comprehensive trade pact under both the Obama and Trump administrations were ultimately scrapped.

But Mr. Biden has often spoken of the importance of strengthening American alliances, and he and his advisers have been eager to remedy ties with Europe that have been strained by President Trump’s confrontational trade approach. They also see much common ground with the European Union on issues like climate change, labor standards and consumer protections, as well as countering China’s growing geopolitical power and trade practices.

Both governments appear eager to make progress on trade issues that have festered under the Trump administration, including spats over subsidies to the aircraft industry and plans by European countries to tax American technology giants.

Those discussions would be led by Mr. Biden’s trade representative, Katherine Tai, whom the president-elect introduced on Friday as his nominee for the post. Ms. Tai is on Mr. Neal’s staff as the Ways and Means Committee’s chief trade lawyer.

Mr. Neal declined to elaborate on conversations he’d had with Ms. Tai about pursuing trade deals with the European Union, but said, “I think we’re in broad agreement on the nature of the challenge.”

Mr. Neal pointed to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement as a “blueprint” for new trade pacts. The accord, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, was negotiated by Mr. Trump and revised by congressional Democrats, including Mr. Neal and Ms. Tai, before going into force this year.

“What we were able to do with U.S.M.C.A. in terms of environment, labor standards, enforcement — I think we have some momentum,” Mr. Neal said. He said he was continuing to work to drum up support for using a European trade deal to counter China’s influence around the globe.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/business/economy/neal-biden-europe-trade.html