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Brussels has dangled some fresh bait to hook a trade deal with Donald Trump: American lobsters.
During the US president’s first term, the bloc agreed in 2020 to eliminate tariffs on the shellfish, as Trump sought to claw back support for his re-election bid in the fishing state of Maine.
But the deal expires on July 31, just after the scheduled end of a truce in the two sides’ current trade war.
The European Commission is open to extending the lobster deal as part of a package to remove tariffs imposed by Trump since his return to power in January, two officials told the FT. The commission declined to comment.
Talks began in earnest last week after the two sides exchanged negotiating documents for the first time, outlining areas of discussion ranging from the EU trade surplus in goods to investment opportunities and regulations that the US believes are barriers to trade.
Trump imposed 20 per cent tariffs on almost all EU imports on April 2 as part of his global “reciprocal” tariff plan, but he then halved the rate until July 8 to allow for negotiations.
At the same time, the US leader has maintained additional 25 per cent tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars and has threatened more levies on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, copper, lumber, critical minerals and aerospace parts.
The EU has said it is willing to reduce the goods trade deficit with Washington by buying more US gas, weapons and agricultural products. It has also readied its own retaliatory tariffs.
The 2020 deal, which scrapped EU tariffs of 8 per cent on lobster imports from all countries, came after Trump complained that an EU trade deal with Canada had hit American exports. Canadian lobsters were not subject to any tariffs under that deal.
As part of the same agreement with the US, commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and trade commissioner Phil Hogan persuaded Trump to halve tariffs he had imposed on EU exports worth around $160mn annually. They included some prepared meals, crystal glassware, cigarette lighters and lighter parts.
US lobster exports to the EU were worth $111mn (€93mn) in 2017 but by 2020 had fallen to €22.3mn, just 11 per cent of the EU market, according to the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat. By 2024 they had increased to €69.2mn, a quarter of the market.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European parliament’s trade committee, said the lobster trade was “not so economically important” but led to de-escalation from Trump. “[The deal] is expiring at the end of July. I’m really in favour of extending it,” he said.
“We have to be really creative in looking also at what in the mind of our American counterparts could be recognised as unfair.”
He suggested the EU could also examine its standards on food and animal health imports as part of any deal.
“In general, of course, our food safety standards and animal health standards cannot be touched,” Lange said, but “we have to look at [each] restriction to see if they are really based on scientific evidence”.
However, the German Social Democratic party MEP said the EU would not change environmental regulations or taxes under US pressure.
