EU Races to Expand €2 Trillion Trade Club as US Links Sour
Container ships sail through the Suez Canal.
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The European Union is racing to clinch trade deals with countries around the world in an effort to diversify away from an increasingly protectionist US as officials worry that the transatlantic relationship has been irreversibly damaged.
The bloc’s chief trade negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, will travel to Washington on Monday to lobby for a reduction in the tariffs President Donald Trump imposed on €380 billion ($432 billion) of the bloc’s exports. In tandem with the talks, the EU is ramping up efforts to strike free-trade accords elsewhere, since officials think ties with the US won’t ever go back to the status quo, according to people familiar with the matter.