트럼프의 미국 우선주의 통상정책과 EU의 양면적 대응 = Trump’s ‘America First’ Trade Policy and the EU’s Two-fold Responses

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this research is to investigate the EU’s responses to Trump’s America first trade policy and to provide its implications. Since the Trump administration determined to impose 25% and 10% of additional tariffs on steel and aluminum products respectively based on threats of national security from imported products, the US tried to have bilateral negotiations with each country. Several countries such as the EU, Canada and Mexico initially announced their strong responses, but most of them chose the negotiations with the US as the way of the resolution. The EU, however, decided to adopt rebalancing measures in reaction to the US steel and aluminium tariffs, which imposed additional tariffs on imported products from the US. Under the situation that trade disputes between the EU and the US could be intensified after Trump’s threat of imposing additional tariffs on imported cars from the EU, both sides reached a deal on July 2018 to work towards ‘zero tariffs, non-tariff barriers and subsidies on non-auto industrial goods including the reform of the WTO’.
The EU’s responses against the US protectionism have two-fold characteristics of hard and moderate policies. The EU as a representative of 28 member states of the EU which has competence in the trade policy as well as its trade volume beyond that of the US has its capability to respond strongly to the US policy. The EU triggered the first phase of retaliation against Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs in line with WTO rules according to the EU’s principle of trade policy on the basis of the multilateral trade system under the WTO. Along with this hard policy, the EU has tried to negotiate with the US in order to avoid deepening trade war with the US. This is mainly because both sides recognise the importance of their economic and political relations and the risk of damages from trade war between them.
Although the US and the EU started the negotiations, it does not seem to be easy to reach an agreement between them. Regardless of the result of the negotiations between the EU and the US, it is clear that the global trading system could be restructured, and the transformation of global supply chain is inevitable due to the trade war between China and the US as well as the result of negotiation between the EU and US. It is time for the Korean government to establish policy reponses from the mid and long term perspective.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 IMF, "‘G-20 Surveillance Note’ G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meetings July 21-22, 2018" staff of the International Monetary Fund 2018

2 BBC, "Will the G7 summit be dominated by a trade row?"

3 Woolcock, Stephen, "What might be behind Trump’s tariffs on steel imports?"

4 Ernst & Young, "United States: Exemption of tariffs on steel and aluminum products reached for some countries - others extended until 1 June"

5 Akhtar, Shayerah Ilias, "US-EU Trade and Economic Issues" Congressional Research Service 2018

6 BBC News, "US-China trade row: what has happened so far?"

7 Canto, Victor. A., "US trade Policy: History and Evidence" 3 (3): 679-696, 1983

8 The Economic Times, "US blocking appointment to key WTO body, Trump may soon be the only winner in any trade dispute"

9 BBC News, "UK to seek exemption from US steel tariffs"

10 BBC News, "Trump and EU’s Juncker pull back from all-out trade war"

11 Morgan & Stanley, "Trade and Protectionism: What happens next?, Morgan Stanley Research" 2018

12 Bailey, Michael A., "The institutional roots of American trade policy: Politics, coalitions, and international trade" 49 (49): 309-338, 1997

13 BBC News, "The early victims of Trump’s trade war"

14 Favry, Elvire, "The WTO can be reformed with or without the US?"

15 Demertzis, Maria, "The EU response to US Trade Tariffs" 53 (53): 260-268, 2018

16 Erasmus, Gerhard, "The Appellate Body Crisis" TARLAC Trade Law Centre

17 Favry, Elvire, "Saving the wto appellate body or returning to the wild west of trade?" Jacques Delors Institute 2018

18 European Commission, "Report on Implementation of EU Free Trade Agreements" European Union 2018

19 European Commission, "Press Release: Joint U.S.-EU Statement following President Juncker’s visit to the White House"

20 European Commission, "Press Release: EU adopts rebalancing measures in reaction to US steel and aluminium tariffs"

21 Stavridis, Stelios, "Militarising the EU: The Concept of civilian power Europe revisited" 36 (36): 43-50, 2008

22 WTO, "Imediate notification under Article 12.5 of the agreement on safeguards to the Council for trade in goods of proposed suspension of concessions and other obligations referred to in paragraph 2 of Article 8 of the agreement on safeguards" World Trade Organization 2018

23 Bloomberg, "Here’s how the EU will punch back against Trump Trade Tarriffs"

24 European Commission, "Global Europe: Competing in the world" European Commission 2006

25 Tewes Henning, "Germany, Civilian Power and the New Europe" Palgrave Macmillan 2002

26 Reuters, "Exclusive: China presses Europe for anti-U.S. alliance on trade"

27 European Commission, "European Commission reacts to the US restrictions on steel and aluminium affecting the EU"

28 CNBC, "EU Replies to Trump"

29 Sunday Express, "Donald Trump hints UK will be exempt from steel tariffs after May’s outrage"

30 European Commission, "Commission statement following US announcement of an extension until 1 June of the EU’s exemption from US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports"

31 Reuters, "Commentary: Trump’s dangerous approach to the ‘supreme court’ of global trade"

32 Orbie, Jan, "Civilian Power Europe: Review of the original and current debates" 41 (41): 123-128, 2006

33 Financial Times, "China seeks ally in Europe to face down US tariffs"

34 The Economist, "Asia’s small open economies may suffer in America’s trade war"

35 Holland, Andrew, "America is Turning its back on Trade and Global Leadership"

36 Al Jazeera, "After trade deal win, Trump doubles down on China"