The Trump administration is telling foreign officials and others that it will not reschedule a summit between the U.S. president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping until the Iran war ends. A Washington-based diplomat privy to U.S.-China summit planning confirmed that the administration has made clear “the next dates for the Trump-Xi summit will only be proposed after the active part of the Iran conflict is over.” A Washington-based individual close to the administration also briefed on White House summit planning confirmed the administration shared that timeline. POLITICO granted both the people anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about sensitive diplomatic discussions. The U.S. State Department directed queries to the White House. The White House denied the summit timeline was tied to the Iran war. “This is fake news. The United States and China are having productive discussions about rescheduling President Trump’s visit — announcements are forthcoming,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said. The Chinese embassy said it had “no information to provide” about the possible delay in summit scheduling. The long-anticipated meeting between Trump and Xi had originally been planned for the end of March, but Trump said Monday the meeting would be pushed back “a month or so” because “we’ve got a war going on.” On Thursday, he said it would happen in “about a month and a half.” Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt suggested the meeting might not take place until after May. “The president has some things here at home in May that he has to attend to, and I’m sure President Xi is a very busy man, as well, so we’ll get the dates on the books as soon as we can,” Leavitt said. Tying the summit preparations to the end of the Iran conflict could mean additional delays to a meeting intended to maintain stability in a fragile U.S.-China trade truce. As the war on Iran enters its fourth week, the Trump administration appears to be preparing for a longer conflict. The U.S. has made detailed plans for the deployment of ground troops onto Iranian soil, CBS News reported Friday. The administration is also moving to dispatch thousands of troops to the region. Trump told reporters Thursday he’s “not putting troops anywhere” but then added: “If I were, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.” “There are operational constraints to managing a war from a foreign country — particularly a hostile one like China,” said the person close to the administration. “It would be terribly awkward for Trump and Xi to transact in this climate.” On Friday, Trump signaled a potential wind-down in the Iran conflict in a Truth Social post, suggesting the U.S. could scale back its role while pushing allies to take on more responsibility in securing the Strait of Hormuz, the major commercial waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great military efforts in the Middle East,” Trump wrote. Trump and Xi made progress toward heading off an intensified trade war in an October meeting in South Korea. During that meeting, Xi committed to Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products like soybeans and the elimination of many of Beijing’s restrictions on critical minerals exports. In return, Trump agreed to extend a pause on triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods. Wendy Cutler, a former negotiator in the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, argued this work can continue even if Trump and Xi don’t meet again in person. “The stabilization part of this won’t necessarily be jeopardized without a meeting,” she said. “Now, if something happens in the war, either foreseen or unforeseen, there’s just lots of flash points that can threaten this truce, which are unforeseeable at this period.” Rush Doshi, former senior director for China and Taiwan in the Biden administration, said a meeting between the two leaders is important to strengthening and maintaining the bilateral relationship. “Without leader-to-leader communication to manage a relationship of this complexity until the war is over — and there’s no sense of when the war is going to be over — there’s a real risk the relationship is going to be less stable than people might have expected,” said Doshi, now at the Council on Foreign Relations.

BRUSSELS — Most Europeans believe the U.S. could pull the plug on technology that Europe heavily relies on, according to a new poll. Eighty-six percent of people think a sudden U.S. move to restrict Europe’s access to digital services is “plausible” and “should not be ruled out,” and 59 percent called it “already a real and concrete risk,” in a survey conducted by SWG and Polling Europe presented to European Parliament members this week. European governments are trying to reduce their dependency on U.S. technology for critical services like cloud, communications and AI. One fear driving the shift to use homegrown tech is that of a “kill switch”; the idea that U.S. President Donald Trump could force the hand of American tech providers to cease services in Europe. Those fears peaked when the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan lost access last year to his Microsoft-hosted email account after the U.S. imposed sanctions on him. “During the last year, everybody has really realized how important it is that we are not dependent on one country or one company when it comes to some very critical technologies,” the EU’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen told an audience in Brussels earlier this year, at an event organized by POLITICO. “In these times … dependencies, they can be weaponized against us,” Virkkunen said. The survey quizzed 5,079 respondents across all 27 EU member countries in January. For 55 percent of those interviewed, charting a “European path” has become a “central strategic issue.” The European Parliament and a series of national government institutions have already taken steps to move away from ubiquitous U.S. tech — though EU capitals have cautioned the transition won’t happen overnight. The European Commission is also finalizing a set of proposals due in late May to reduce reliance on foreign tech, including defining what qualifies as a sovereign provider and which critical sectors should rely exclusively on them to safeguard European data and day-to-day operations. The poll suggests U.S. efforts to debunk and dismiss the “kill switch” scenario haven’t convinced Europeans. U.S. National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross told an audience in Munich in February that the idea that Trump can pull the plug on the internet is not “a credible argument.” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in Brussels last year that the “kill switch” scenario was “exceedingly unlikely” to happen, but acknowledged it’s “a real concern of people across Europe.” He pledged to push back against any prospective orders to suspend operations in Europe. U.S. firms at the same time are rushing to assuage the concerns with safeguards, like air-gapped solutions that would prove resilient in the case of operational disruptions.

BRUSSELS — The European Parliament will hold a committee vote on the EU-U.S. trade deal this week, top lawmakers decided on Tuesday, in a step that will be met with relief in Washington.  Lawmakers from the Parliament’s trade committee will vote on Thursday on legislation to scrap tariffs on U.S. industrial goods — representing the backbone of the EU’s pledge in the trade deal reached at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last summer. Bernd Lange, chair of the trade committee, said Tuesday’s discussion had been “quite smooth” and had achieved a broad understanding. “Therefore we will go for the vote on Thursday,” he told POLITICO. The decision unblocks a weeks-long deadlock, as EU lawmakers balked at approving a deal that appeared at risk of unraveling. First, the U.S. Supreme Court in February struck down most of the tariffs on which the Turnberry accord was based. Then Trump’s threats to annex Greenland and slap an embargo on Spain further soured sentiment. Lawmakers from Socialists & Democrats, liberals and Greens have pushed for reassurances from Washington before moving to a vote, while the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) is adamant that the deal must be approved quickly to avoid retaliation by Trump and bring stability to businesses. “We have a big majority today,” said EPP negotiator Željana Zovko.  A date for a final plenary vote will be determined on Wednesday, said Lange, adding that this could take place in March or April. Only then would the European Parliament enter negotiations with EU capitals and the European Commission on a compromise that would finally implement the deal.  Lange, a veteran German Social Democrat who is also the lead lawmaker on the file, proposed new amendments to the legislation that won the backing of the EPP. He has said that his changes mainly included stronger language on the EU’s own protections in case Washington fails to keep its side of the deal. “Sunrise clause, and sunset, and suspension, and so on, some fine-tuning,” Lange had told POLITICO on Monday.  Lange will travel to Washington after the vote on Thursday, and is expected to meet Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Friday, along with a delegation of EU lawmakers.

STRASBOURG — European and American officials are scrambling to avoid a return to their transatlantic trade war, amid increasing frustration in Washington over the EU’s failure to implement the transatlantic trade deal they agreed last summer. A trio of senior European lawmakers will travel to Washington next week, hoping to meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who accuses the EU of implementing “zero percent” of the trade accord reached at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last July 27. The mission to the U.S. comes amid of flurry of diplomatic contacts between EU and U.S. officials ahead of a high-stakes vote by European lawmakers expected on March 26 that will determine whether Brussels can implement last year’s accord. That vote is at risk of being delayed, yet again, after a series of previous hold ups. U.S. patience is wearing thin, raising the prospect that the tariff conflict could flare up again. “The EU has done approximately zero percent of what they were supposed to do for their trade deal with us. We quickly after the Turnberry deal came into compliance with that deal,” Greer said during a press call on Wednesday.  “The European Union has had their legislation for their tariffs pending for many, many, many, many months,” he added.  Top EU parliamentary negotiators will meet on March 17 to decide whether to push back their vote again. The Turnberry agreement is widely seen in Europe as a one-sided pact. In it, the EU accepted a 15 percent U.S. tariff on most exports, while itself pledging to scrap all tariffs on U.S. industrial goods. Many EU lawmakers fear that Trump could yet renege on the deal to make more tariff threats, as he has done over Greenland and Spain.  In the Parliament, the center-right European People’s Party — the political family of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — wants to see the deal approved to avoid retaliation by Trump and bring stability to businesses.  The Socialists & Democrats, liberals and Greens have voted against moving forward, however, after balking at the U.S. president’s latest tariff menaces against Spain, his strikes on Iran and his threats to stage a “friendly takeover” of Cuba. CRACKS IN TRUST Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has sought to reassure the Europeans that the U.S. will stick by the deal. Yet skepticism persists. “How can we get clarity with Trump [who] doesn’t respect the deals? I think that, for now, what we would need is some public statement on the willingness to respect the deal,” Brando Benifei, an Italian Socialist who is the Parliament’s point person for relations with the U.S., said on Tuesday.  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has sought to reassure the Europeans that the U.S. will stick by the deal. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images Benifei will be one of the three MEPs traveling to meet Greer. The others are Bernd Lange, the German Social Democrat who chairs the European Parliament’s trade committee, and Polish center-right lawmaker Michał Szczerba, who sits on the foreign and security committees. They hope to meet Greer on March 20, but the EU lawmakers could already have delayed the vote by then. “I hope that we can find some common ground,” Lange said. Karin Karlsbro, a Swedish liberal who is skeptical on the trade pact, is also expected to meet with representatives of the U.S. mission to the EU, her office said. And Željana Zovko, the top negotiator on the file from the EPP, the biggest grouping in Parliament, will meet with U.S. Ambassador Andrew Puzder on Monday, she told POLITICO. Despite the worries from the U.S. side, Anna Cavazzini, the lead lawmaker on the file in the Greens group who is spearheading opposition to the deal, said she had not been contacted by the Americans. UNRELIABLE PARTNER Despite Bessent’s pledge on the Turnberry pact, the EU remains wary over what Trump will do next. The U.S. has, only this week, launched new investigations into unfair trade practices that could trigger more tariffs against the EU. That has redoubled concerns in Brussels that Trump plans to plow on with his aggressive trade agenda against Europe, undeterred by a Supreme Court ruling last month that substantially overturned his original tariff agenda. On top of the latest investigations, people close to the file say the White House will not shy away from imposing tariffs on national security grounds, such as Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Washington’s double-sided approach is not lost on European lawmakers.  “‘We’ll stick to the deal.’ And less than 24 hours later, they are already threatening us with new tariffs. It is impossible to work with the Trump administration like this,” the Socialist group’s vice president for trade policy, Kathleen Van Brempt, said in a post on X Thursday.  The EPP’s top trade lawmaker, Jörgen Warborn, last week pitched a “sunrise clause,” meaning the deal would only finally kick in if Washington upheld its side of the bargain. “That would give clarity because what the sunrise clause is doing, it’s making sure that the deal doesn’t kick in before it is confirmed that all the elements of the deal are upheld,” Warborn told POLITICO on Tuesday. Željana Zovko, the top negotiator on the file from the EPP, the biggest grouping in Parliament, will meet with U.S. Ambassador Andrew Puzder on Monday, she told POLITICO. | Martin Bertrand/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images Benifei said the sunrise clause could enable his group to support the pact. Still, he explained, this would require provisions allowing the Commission not to implement the EU-U.S. agreement until Washington stops threatening the EU’s digital rules, and until the U.S. lowers tariffs on EU steel derivatives. “We are not there,” he said, expressing skepticism that the EPP would be willing to place such tough demands on the Commission. “They [EPP lawmakers] are a bit worried about the situation that is not moving,” he said. “I need to see what they are actually ready to do, because to be frank, my impression is that they are a bit in the mood [of saying] …‘Just let’s not make Trump angry.’” Carlo Martuscelli contributed to this report.

BRUSSELS — Spain’s business sector isn’t sure Donald Trump will chicken out. While the country’s political class may be steadfast in its defiance against the U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran, its companies and regional leaders are scrambling to figure out what retaliation out of Washington would look like. The fear is that a transatlantic rift between Washington and Madrid, which opened after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez refused to let U.S. military planes use jointly operated air bases on Spanish soil to attack Iran, could turn into a complete rupture. Earlier this week, the U.S. President and his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to cut all trade ties with the EU’s fourth-largest economy in retaliation. It’s not supposed to be easy for the U.S. to bring economic pain to Spain. The EU functions as a barrier-free common market of 27 nations, a collective commercial entity that cannot be divided or fragmented with individual retaliation. But Spanish businesses aren’t taking any chances, given how vulnerable the country would be to a U.S. trade embargo. The U.S. is Spain’s leading supplier of fossil fuels. Over 15 percent of the oil Spain imported last year came from the U.S., which also provided a record 44 percent of the country’s liquefied natural gas imports last January alone. Cutting off the supply of either would be devastating amid surging energy prices from the war in the Gulf. Even though the U.S. accounts for less than 5 percent of Spain’s total global exports, suspending trade relations would have a serious impact on regions like the autonomous Basque Country, a major industrial player. “Around 8 percent of our exports go directly to the States,” Ander Caballero, the Basque government’s head of foreign affairs, told POLITICO during an interview in Brussels. “We need to see how any change in policy would be applied, but anything affecting the energy or automotive sectors, or involving machine tools, steel, and aluminum would be a source of concern.” Caballero noted that the region’s products were also part of larger value chains that involve large German, French, and British companies. “Even though the U.S. is only our fourth laregst trading partner, we could still be talking about a hit that could amount to €1 billion.” Basque Country President Imanol Pradales this week convened an emergency meeting of the region’s “Industrial Defense Group,” made up of government figures, chambers of commerce and key sectoral and business leaders, to coordinate contingency measures against the commercial turmoil stemming from the Middle Eastern conflict. The rapid-response task force was created one year ago with the mission of mitigating the regional impact of Trump’s tariff policies, which Pradales described as a “challenge unlike anything we’ve seen in decades.” This week marked the fourth emergency meeting of the group. “The Basque Country cannot control the global geopolitical landscape, but we can react quickly to protect our industry,” Pradales said. “The time it takes us to react will determine the magnitude of the impact.” The rush to prepare for the worst underscores Spaniards’ fear of the White House’s arsenal of economic weapons. So far, the most popular of these weapons has been trade tariffs. But Trump has also used sanctions to deprive his dissenters from using American credit cards and cut off countries like Iran from the world’s reserve currency. Scott Bessent has no qualms with weaponizing the U.S. dollar | Magnus Lejhall/EPA Bessent has no qualms with weaponizing the U.S. dollar, either. Earlier this year, he told POLITICO that sanctions and limits on access to the greenback enabled Washington to influence other countries’ policies “without firing bullets.” That’s of particular concern to banks, such as Spain’s largest lender, Santander, which last month agreed to acquire the U.S.’s Webster Financial Corporation, a second-tier bank. The $12.2 billion deal could catapult Santander into the top 10 American retail and commercial lenders. At the very least, a breakdown in commercial relations between Madrid and Washington could make it harder to secure necessary regulatory approvals. Santander Executive Chairman Ana Botín sought to calm shareholders on Wednesday, insisting that it was key to “look to the medium term.” While acknowledging that the current situation was “extraordinary,” she downplayed the clash, saying: “trade continues and is very strong.” “Spain and the U.S. have had an amazing relationship, forever, for centuries,” Botín told  Bloomberg TV, alluding to the Spanish crown’s financial support for George Washington in the American War of Independence, the 250th anniversary of which is being observed this year. “The long-term relationship is strong.” YET ANOTHER TACO? Of course, it’s entirely possible that Trump’s vow to cut ties with Spain will never materialize. According to market lore, whenever the risk of self-inflicted economic pain outweighs political rhetoric, “Trump always chickens out” — or TACO . None of the higher tariffs he threatened to impose on Sweden, Norway, Germany, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands for their participation in military training exercises in Greenland has been implemented. Neither has the 200 percent tariff on French wine and champagne that Trump swore he’d impose on Paris after French President Macron declined to join the Board of Peace scheme to rebuild Gaza. And Madrid is still waiting to hear about the higher tariffs the U.S. president promised to use to punish Sánchez for his refusal to commit 5 percent of Spain’s GDP to military spending. Sánchez this week insisted that, no matter what Trump threatens, Spain will continue to oppose the war in Iran. José Manuel Corrales, a professor of economics and international relations at the European University in Madrid, said the Spanish prime minister’s stance is savvy because the U.S. president tends to back down when countries respond to Washington by remaining firm. “It’s worked out for Canada and México, and obviously for China,” he said. “And, politically, it’s definitely working out for Spain’s government, which is now being hailed for standing up to Trump and firmly saying no to this war.” Regardless of whether Washington cuts trade relations with Madrid, Spain’s economy is already being affected by the instability caused by the U.S. attack on Iran. Corrales said Spain’s booming economy — which grew by 2.8 percent in 2025, and is projected to expand by over 2 percent this year — could be undermined by surging inflation if the war lasts long. “The truth is that we may be facing a crisis with significant repercussions,” he said. “This latest war is already going to have consequences for the American economy, but the Trump administration is also going to have to pay for the damage it’s wrought on the global economy sooner or later.”

BRUSSELS — The European Parliament’s trade lawmakers decided on Wednesday to keep the EU-U.S. trade deal frozen amidst volatile transatlantic relations.  A majority of political groups voted not to move ahead with legislation to implement the EU’s side of the bargain struck at President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last summer. “We want to have clarity that they are sticking to the deal as well,” said Bernd Lange, chair of the Parliament’s International Trade Committee. The lead negotiators will meet again on March 17 and reassess whether to schedule a committee vote that same week, according to three officials. Once the committee green-lights the trade agreement, it could be ratified in a plenary session on March 25-26.  The latest postponement follows Trump’s threat on Tuesday to impose a trade embargo on Spain for refusing to allow U.S. warplanes stationed there to launch air strikes on Iran. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain,” Trump said during a sit-down with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office. “We don’t want anything to do with Spain.” Centre-right and right-wing lawmakers had wanted to fast-track the deal and approve it in a plenary vote next week. That proposal failed to win enough support as the Social Democrats, liberals, and Greens voted against moving forward. “Regrettably, the U.S. files have been postponed,” said Jörgen Warborn, the lead trade lawmaker of the center-right European People’s Party. “It is a shame that an anti-Trump narrative is being pushed more strongly than a pro-European one, risking a transatlantic trade war. Citizens need clarity and predictability.”

BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has worked hard to curry favor with U.S. President Donald Trump. But their Oval Office meeting on Tuesday begged two important questions: How far is Merz willing to go to stay on Trump’s good side — and at what political cost? The conservative German chancellor sat deferentially and mostly silent as Trump threatened to “embargo” Spain for not spending more on defense and for condemning U.S. strikes on Iran. Nor did Merz respond when Trump attacked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on an array of issues — “this is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with” — and threatened to escalate his trade war with Europe. Merz’s silence was part of an obvious strategy: Never contradict Trump in front of the cameras, and try in private talks to cajole the president into seeing things Germany’s way. Yet the image of the EU’s most powerful national leader sitting obsequiously beside Trump as he berated fellow European leaders will likely have jarred many Germans and left a sour taste in capitals across Europe, underscoring the political dangers of placating the U.S. president. It also shows the relative powerlessness of a German leader whose chief foreign policy goals —from deterring Russian aggression to bolstering Germany’s export-driven economy— depend largely on a frequently humiliating balancing act to manage relations with a thin-skinned, unpredictable Trump. Merz appears to have succeeded at getting Trump to like him. The president called the chancellor a “friend” on Tuesday and praised him for doing “really a great job.” Trump also sounded thankful for the chancellor’s rhetorical support for U.S. strikes on Iran, saying Merz has been “helping us out” and “very nice” on the matter. This was, in fact, Merz’s strategy going into the talks with Trump. Before his departure he said he supported Trump’s goals regarding Tehran even as he acknowledged a fear that the strikes could lead to an Iraq-style quagmire. “Now is not the time to lecture our partners and allies,” he concluded, stowing his concerns. Once in the Oval Office, as Trump bragged of the damage U.S. airstrikes had inflicted on Iran — “just about everything has been knocked out” — Merz gave an approving chuckle and said Germany was on the “same page” on the need to eliminate the regime in Tehran. By contrast, Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has drawn Trump’s ire for criticizing the Iran strikes as illegal and barring the U.S. from using Spanish bases to attack the country. He has also refused to abide by NATO’s new 5-percent-of-GDP spending target.  For those reasons, Trump said: “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.” Merz said nothing in response, agreeing only that Spain needs to spend more on defense. “We are trying to convince them that this is a part of our common security, that we all have to comply with these numbers,” he said. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Washington after his Oval Office meeting. He later said “there is no way that Spain will be treated particularly badly” on trade as a member of the EU. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images French President Emmanuel Macron, in stark contrast to Merz, later publicly aligned with Sánchez in questioning the legality of Trump’s war. NO CHURCHILL Merz also said nothing when Trump attacked the center-left Starmer over an ongoing dispute between Washington and London about the status of Diego Garcia — an island in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean that is home to a joint U.S.-U.K. military base.  “The U.K. has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have, that they gave away,” Trump said. “They ruin relationships. It’s a shame.” Merz needs close ties with both the British prime minister and Sánchez. Starmer is an important ally in the “E3” format that Germany, France and the U.K. use to coordinate European strategy toward Ukraine. Sánchez, meanwhile, represents the largest faction within the center-left Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, with whom Merz’s conservatives must reach compromises.  Following his meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Merz said: “There is no way that Spain will be treated particularly badly” on trade as a member of the EU. He also said he had defended Starmer to Trump, telling the president the British leader “is making a really very, very large, very, very valuable contribution in the E3 format to ending the war in Ukraine, and that I consider this criticism of him to be unjustified.” The key, Merz said, had been not to correct Trump in front of the cameras. “I did this behind closed doors because, as I said, I did not want to play out the conflict on the open stage there.” Perhaps the biggest question for Merz, however,  is whether the appeasement is working. Merz’s goal, after all, had been to convince Trump to deescalate his tariff war on Europe and to get the U.S. leader to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin more aggressively with sanctions to end the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. Merz said after his meeting with Trump that he had shown the U.S. president a map of the front lines in Ukraine, and that he had come away with the impression “that the president is now more understanding what is at stake for this country” when it comes to the need to avoid territorial concessions. He also said he had told Trump that the EU-U.S. trade agreement agreed last summer is not up for debate. “Here in Washington, they know that we on the European side have reached a limit in terms of what we are willing to accept,” Merz said. “I have gained the impression that the president and his staff see it that way too.” Preserving that opportunity to persuade Trump on such issues is why Merz avoids open confrontation with the president. Of course, behind closed doors, Trump may also have told Merz what he wanted to hear. In front of the cameras, however, Tuesday’s meeting provided no evidence that Merz was able win Trump around on the key issues. On the contrary, Trump threatened to intensify his trade wars and complained of having given away “massive amounts of ammunition” to Ukraine. As a foreign policy tactic, Merz may have discovered, flattering Trump has its dangers and limits.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music In dieser Wochenendausgabe spricht Rixa Fürsen mit dem ⁠stellvertretenden Chefredakteur der ZEIT, Holger Stark⁠, über sein neues Buch. Darin legt er dar, warum die USA sich zwar unter Trump verändert haben, dies aber kein reines Trump-Phänomen ist und warum diese Entwicklung auch nach seiner Amtszeit nicht mehr verschwinden wird. Stark hat mit Politikerinnen und Politikern in den USA und der EU gesprochen und zeigt auf, warum der Niedergang der transatlantischen Beziehungen auch das Ergebnis einer gewissen Sorglosigkeit und fehlender Weitsicht seit Beginn der 2000er-Jahre ist. Holger Stark liest dazu auch Passagen aus seinem Buch „Das erwachsene Land: Deutschland ohne Amerika – eine historische Chance“, in dem es auch darum geht, wie eine Zukunft jenseits des bisherigen starken Partners aussehen könnte. ⁠Das Buch ist im Propyläen Verlag erschienen und unter anderem hier erhältlich.⁠ Außerdem blicken Rixa und Holger Stark auf die kommende Woche. Dann reist der Bundeskanzler nach Washington. Was er dort erreichen kann, unter anderem, wenn es um Zölle und die Ukraine geht, ist ein weiteres Thema in dieser Folge. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. ⁠Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren.⁠ Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: ⁠@gordon.repinski⁠ | X: ⁠@GordonRepinski⁠. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 ⁠information@axelspringer.de⁠ Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna

PARIS — The European Union should stop raging at Donald Trump and learn its lessons from the U.S. president’s saber-rattling on tariffs, France’s trade minister told POLITICO. “The European Union, the European countries, should not get angry at America’s positions, but should try to better understand America’s logic — which, by the way, began well before Donald Trump,” Nicolas Forissier said in an interview on Thursday.  Forissier, who said riding a Harley-Davidson motorbike down the iconic Chicago-to-California Route 66 highway had given him a feel for American culture, argued Trump’s approach should motivate the EU to fix its own shortcomings.  The U.S. president’s erratic trade policy, along with a glut of Chinese exports, has triggered deeper reflection within the 27-nation bloc about how to regain industrial competitiveness — including by diversifying trade partners, cutting red tape for businesses, and rewriting public procurement rules to include a “Made in Europe” preference.  “It’s also a way of asking us to take responsibility, to step out of our comfort zone. Before criticizing or getting angry at each other, we need to look at what we haven’t done well and where we can improve,” the 65-year-old minister added. The U.S. Supreme Court last week struck down the “reciprocal tariffs” that had underpinned the trade deal Trump struck with the EU at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last July. Despite the ruling, the European Commission wants to finalize ratification of the deal, which is now stuck in the European Parliament. Forissier convened G7 trade ministers for a virtual call on Monday, at which U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer made it clear that Washington was aiming to reinstate the tariffs that were struck down via other legal tools. Greer has also said that the U.S. wants to stick to the terms of deals it has already struck. “The European Parliament’s wait-and-see approach and suspension of the vote is quite logical,” Forissier said. “It’s now up to the Americans to clarify things, to calm things down. I don’t think it’s in the United States’ interest to take a stance of high tariffs, toughening measures.” HOLDING THE (15 PERCENT) LINE Forissier, a veteran who hails from the conservative Les Républicains party, said the EU should focus on strengthening its own foundations, also by building a real capital markets union. “That may also enable us to provide concrete answers to the questions raised by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta. Because we know full well that the European Union really needs to make a huge investment effort, particularly in innovation,” Forissier said, referring to landmark strategy recommendations from the two former Italian PMs.  “Basically, the Americans are doing us a favor by forcing us to take action, make decisions, and step outside our comfort zones or areas of uncertainty that suited us just fine.” Forissier’s comments were a departure from the usually more hawkish French position toward Washington. As recently as January, President Emmanuel Macron called for the EU to use its strongest trade weapon in response to Trump’s threats to annex Greenland.  France has been the fiercest supporter of making the EU economically less dependent on the rest of the world, with Macron for years pushing for more public investment in the EU economy and for more trade defense and “Made in Europe” measures to ensure European firms can compete with their Asian and U.S. rivals.  The trade minister stressed that the deal with Washington — which foresees an “all-inclusive” tariff of 15 percent on most EU exports and exempts aircraft and pharmaceuticals — should remain the baseline of the EU’s relationship to Washington.  He urged, however, that Brussels keep negotiating further exemptions — something the U.S. has so far been reluctant to do given the EU still hasn’t completed its side of the bargain on the deal struck last July at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. Legislation to scrap duties on imports of U.S. industrial goods remains stuck in the European Parliament. “I would like us not simply to revert to the Turnberry agreement. We must also continue the process, ensure that the conversation is constructive, and move forward,” he said.  “Frankly, is it in the interest of American consumers to have a 15 percent tariff on French spirits?”

BRUSSELS — The European Parliament should postpone a vote on legislation implementing the EU’s side of its transatlantic trade deal, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, a senior lawmaker said Sunday, citing fresh legal uncertainty around the agreement. The “terms of Turnberry Agreement and legal basis on which it was built have changed,” Bernd Lange, chair of European Parliament’s trade committee, said on Sunday. “Do new tariffs based on Section 122 not constitute a breach of the deal? Regardless, no one knows whether the U.S. will adhere to it — or even be able to,” he said in a post on X. “At our extra meeting tomorrow, I will therefore propose to the EP-negotiating team putting legislative work on hold until we have a proper legal assessment and clear commitments from the U.S. side,” Lange said. One day after the Supreme Court struck down his signature tariff policy, Trump on Saturday announced he plans a new global tariff rate of 15 percent, lifting the rate from 10 percent. To do so, he invoked Section 122 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to impose tariffs up to 15 percent to address a “large and serious balance-of-payment deficit,” which can remain in effect for no more than 150 days unless the U.S. Congress authorizes an extension. The vote in the European Parliament, scheduled for Tuesday, is meant to confirm the institution’s position on a law that removes tariffs on U.S. industrial goods and lobster — a key plank of EU pledges under a deal struck at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort last summer. The delay proposed by Lange will have to garner support among the EU’s political groups during an extraordinary meeting set for Monday afternoon. The Greens, via their lead lawmaker on the file Anna Cavazzini, said: “The vote on the Turnberry Agreement in the European Parliament should be paused until we have clarity.” “It was clear that Trump’s tariffs were illegal under international law. Now we also have confirmation that they were also illegal under U.S. law,” she said in a statement on Friday.