Yesterday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker met with President Trump at the White House to talk about trade. Afterwards, to the surprise of many (including me), they held a press conference at which they said positive things about the U.S.-EU trade relationship. Then later, President Trump had five positive tweets about the meeting. It was more amicable than anything we’ve seen in U.S. trade policy for many months.
But obviously, positive tweets only get you so far. What does all this mean in terms of substance? That’s hard to say.
While the parties did agree on a couple key points that looks promising — including working towards “zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies” on non-auto industrial products — it’s not clear how this will develop or if a permanent change in approach is possible.
Regardless, one day of trade peace is nice after months of harsh rhetoric and escalating tariffs.