(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s aggressive strategy to recast some of the U.S.’s global relationships has proven successful, according to the European Union’s top trade negotiator. But for the moment, the bloc isn’t letting the U.S. sow divisions.
“The Trump strategy is working,” EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Thursday when asked about the U.S.’s reworked trade pacts with Canada, Mexico and South Korea. “It’s working from his perspective and obviously his voters like it.”
The Trump administration recently clinched a deal to update its North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, a broad accord that covers $1.2 trillion in commerce. The U.S. also signed a renegotiated pact with South Korea last month, even though analysts said many of the changes were largely cosmetic.
The EU is is the early stages of discussions with the U.S. -- although Malmstrom is quick to say they aren’t official negotiations -- in an effort to get a quick and limited trade accord that would keep at bay the American threat of tariffs on the bloc’s cars and car parts.
“There are attempts to court different capitals and divide us,” Malmstrom said. “But we share that information with each other and there’s a strong determination -- for now -- to be very united.”
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