Europe

A post-Brexit United Kingdom-European Union trade agreement, as well as any U.S.-UK deal, should create an environment that is “as frictionless as possible” for people, goods and services, the U.S.-UK Business Council said on Wednesday.

Now that the European Commission has a mandate to negotiate a trade deal with the United States, the next step for the two sides is to agree on what areas the negotiation will cover -- a normally perfunctory exercise that could derail the latest round of trans-Atlantic talks before they even begin.

The European Union is threatening to bring a case against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization challenging the legality of a statute that allows U.S. citizens whose property was seized by the Cuban government to sue foreign companies using that property in Cuba.

The EU’s list comes just days after the U.S. announced its preliminary list of tariffs on $11 billion worth of European goods.

European member states are set to approve on Monday a mandate authorizing the European Commission to negotiate a limited trade deal with the United States despite a promise by French President Emmanuel Macron to oppose the talks.

“These things have dragged on for so long, you've got to try to force them to change their behavior. I don't think the USTR wants to impose, necessarily, those tariffs, but clearly Europe needs to understand they need to comply with normal trade laws.”

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Monday issued a list of European products that will be hit with retaliatory tariffs as part of the U.S.’ World Trade Organization dispute against the European Union for subsidies the EU provides to Airbus.

“Provide Congress time to work with the administration and ensure the decisions match both the letter and the spirit of the GSP law.”