EU hopes to ease trade tension with US at G7 summit, official says

The European Union hopes to ease trade tensions with US President Donald Trump when the leaders of the world’s seven major advanced economies meet in France over the weekend, a senior EU official said on Thursday.
             
Transatlantic rifts are set to feature prominently when Trump arrives at the G7 summit in France to discuss differences over trade, Iran, and climate change.
             
The EU said last month it would retaliate with extra duties on 35 billion euros’ worth of US goods if Washington imposes punitive tariffs on EU cars.
             
The Sino-US trade war has also spurred fears of a broader global economic slump.
             
“We see trade tensions as the single most important risk factor to the growth of the global economy,” the senior EU official said. The bloc would be seeking to defuse them and to concentrate on a “positive” EU-US trade agenda.
             
Since the EU’s chief executive, Jean-Claude Juncker traveled to Washington for trade talks with Trump a year ago, the bloc’s imports of US liquefied natural gas have tripled, while those of soybeans have doubled, according to the official.
             
“We can continue on that pathway where we also have an opportunity for both the US and the EU to reach a deal on the elimination of industrial tariffs,” the official said. If such an agreement is reached, the EU estimates that each side will generate an additional 26 billion dollars or euros in exports.
             
The EU would also prefer to resolve a dispute between aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus without resorting to tariffs, the official said.