AMBASSADOR/EU/FOREIGN POLICY/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Europe over trade and foreign policy, the Trump administration is moving to fill the long-vacant post of U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
Washington has asked the EU if Portland hotelier Gordon Sondland would be an acceptable nominee, according to two senior European officials. If nominated and approved by the Senate, a process that can take months, he would fill a job that has been vacant since January 2016…
President Donald Trump’s rocky relationship with the EU—he has publicly embraced Britain’s decision to leave the bloc—led some officials in Brussels to doubt whether the administration would fill the EU ambassador post…
Tensions between Brussels and Washington have sharpened in recent days. The EU has warned it will take countermeasures against the U.S. if it is not exempted from Mr. Trump’s plan to place import tariffs on steel and aluminum, a step that the bloc says could cost thousands of jobs.
The administration and the EU have been at loggerheads on policies like climate change and the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. EU officials are also warning that relations would be further damaged if Mr. Trump, as threatened, withdraws the U.S. from the Iranian nuclear agreement.”
-Laurence Norman and Stephen Fidler, “U.S. Moves to Appoint New Ambassador to EU,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 12, 2018 10:49am