Why the EU-US summit won’t yield any breakthroughs on trade

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Good morning. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU council chief Charles Michel are in Washington today for a long-awaited summit with US president Joe Biden to talk tariffs. My colleagues preview the meeting below, explaining why you shouldn’t hold your breath. And our Nordics correspondent looks at how Finland is getting tougher on Russia.

Trade troubles

The leaders of the US and the EU institutions meet in Washington today for a summit that was intended to normalise trade relations.

But with those talks stuck despite intense round-the-clock efforts, the summit will now focus on simpler issues, such as support for Ukraine and Israel, write Andy Bounds and Alice Hancock.

Context: Diplomats planned the date to force an agreement on a green steel club to end a transatlantic tariff war triggered under former US president Donald Trump. But differences appear irreconcilable, leaving nothing to announce.

The US will permanently lift its tariffs on EU steel and aluminium imports — they have been suspended for two years — only if Brussels agrees to levy similar ones on China, which Washington says is flooding the market with cheap metal. The EU insists it has to abide by international trade rules, first running an investigation to prove China is subsidising its producers.

The two sides are likely to prolong their truce at least until after elections next November, in which Biden needs to win steelmaking states such as Pennsylvania.

A parallel deal on critical minerals, which would allow EU carmakers access to US subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act, is also stuck.

Instead, they will focus on things they agree on.

Biden made a rare Oval Office address last night calling for the divided Congress to commit to military aid for Ukraine and Israel. Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, gave a speech at the Hudson Institute think-tank to boost his cause.

There was “no room for hesitation or half measures” in the West’s support for Ukraine, von der Leyen said. She called on the EU’s allies “to double down — whether on finance or equipment”.

“Europe intends to step up,” she said, adding: “We recognise that US support should be one important piece of a global effort.”

Leaders will also talk tough on Iran, attempting to dissuade Tehran and Hizbollah in Lebanon from getting involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict amid fears of it spreading.

Diplomats were still haggling over the summit statement on China, with the US, as usual, going further than the EU would like.

Officials insist relations between Brussels and Washington are closer than ever despite the trade tensions. “We are dependent on each other, we just have to keep negotiating and find solutions,” said Ville Tavio, Finland’s trade minister.

Chart du jour: Monster trucks

In Ireland, where incomes have grown and public transport is poor, more people are buying bigger cars. This is hampering the country’s environmental targets, as transport emissions last year rose by 6 per cent.

Protecting home(s)

Finland is toughening its public stance against Russia, with the government yesterday banning three property transactions in the Nordic country involving Russians, writes Richard Milne.

Context: Finland has never let its guard down on its neighbour, but it has often been reluctant to criticise or take on Moscow publicly, even as evidence has mounted of Russians snapping up properties near sensitive locations such as military bases.

Finland’s defence ministry yesterday barred three real estate deals involving Russian individuals and companies in two towns located not far from the border between the two countries.

Russians made some high-profile deals in Finland in the 2010s, including buying a local ice hockey team (a popular sport in both countries), developing a nuclear power plant that has since been canned, and buying up property across the country.

After an outcry over one such property, a James Bond-style lair close to strategic shipping routes, Finland’s defence ministry in 2020 got the power to stop real estate sales to non-EU entities. Finland only started using it about a year ago, including a case in which it prevented Russians from buying an old people’s home close to a military installation.

The move is “symbolic of official Finland’s newish relationship with things Russian,” Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a leading researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

All this comes against the backdrop of investigations into the apparent sabotage of a gas pipeline and data cable between Finland and Estonia, as well as damage to a second data cable between Sweden and Estonia around the same time. Nato yesterday announced it would step up patrols in the Baltic Sea over the incidents.

Investigators are concentrating on several Russian ships as well as a Chinese vessel located near the area. Expect more public denouncement from the Finns should they find something concrete.

What to watch today

1. EU officials in Washington for summit with US government.

2. EU trade ministers meet in Valencia, Spain.

Now read these

• Fallen through the cracks: The gunman who killed two Swedish football fans in Brussels this week was denied asylum in four different European countries.

• History lessons: A park in the French countryside offers visitors re-enactments of ancient French history, but the episodes are tinted with ideological messages.

• Tough neighbourhood: Centuries-old regional rivalries will complicate EU attempts to expand in the Balkans, writes Tony Barber.