Trump should realize change of approach in US interests: China Daily editorial

The US treasury secretary insisted on Sunday that agricultural issues were discussed in the talks between President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. It is a claim that contradicts the EU Commission president's account of the negotiations.

"I was in the room and we had specific conversations about agriculture and the need to break down the barriers on agriculture and have more opportunities for our farmers," Steven Mnuchin said on Fox News Sunday.

They may indeed have talked about more than soybeans when discussing agriculture, but, as EU commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva has said, if you look at the joint statement that was released by the two sides while farmers and soybeans are mentioned, there is "no mention of agriculture as such" in their agreement.

After the acrimonious exchanges between the two sides in the run-up to the talks, in which Trump went so far as to call the EU "a foe" of the US, their honeyed words last week seemed to indicate they had patched up their differences. Now it appears that is not the case.

US farmers have been hard hit by China's retaliatory tariffs on US imports, particularly soybeans, so Trump's claim on Thursday that the talks opened up Europe for US farmers will no doubt have been met with huge sighs of relief and taken some of the domestic pressure off his administration.

However, while US soybeans may soon be on EU menus, that the bloc has agreed to dine on other US agricultural products is harder to swallow.

It would certainly be difficult for Juncker to convince the EU producers of agricultural products that such a deal would be in their interests.

French President Emmanuel Macron has openly expressed his opposition to any "vast new trade deal" between the EU and the US, and his sentiment was echoed by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

It seems that once again, as it did after its talks with China, the Trump administration wants to take more than was agreed.

China and the US reached a trade agreement after talks in Beijing and Washington in May. However, that proved short-lived as the US administration soon decided that having got an agreement it would be able to get more.

Some argue that it will be different this time because the EU is a longtime US ally, but it will only take a tweet from the US president to make the consensus null and void.

The latest war of words between the US and the EU shows once again that the crux of the matter is the approach of the Trump administration. Instead of pursuing its unilateralism it should join with China and the EU to work together to build an open world economy in which all benefit.