AGRICULTURE/EU/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A top Trump administration official said Sunday [7-29-18] the U.S. will ‘immediately’ start negotiating with the European Union to forge trade agreements on farm and energy products, promising ‘an actual transaction’ right away to sell more soybeans, beef and liquefied natural gas to European countries. Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s chief economic adviser, said he would be involved in the negotiations, to be led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer…Mr. Kudlow stressed that broad discussions on agriculture will be part of the bilateral talks, underscoring a gap with Brussels, which has vowed to keep the sector off the table. Mr. Trump agreed with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday to bring a truce to a trade dispute that had erupted after Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Europe had retaliated, drawing threats from Mr. Trump to impose even bigger restrictions on imports of European cars. European officials said they were already engaged in talks with the U.S. to boost beef imports and promised to seek buying more American soybeans following China’s decision to cut imports of the crop in a separate trade dispute. But European officials have said that beyond those two specific areas, they made clear to Washington they wouldn’t include any broader discussion of agriculture in the pending talks.”
–Yuka Hayashi, “Trump Adviser Kudlow Says U.S. to ‘Immediately’ Start EU Trade Talks on Agriculture,” The Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2018 6:05 pm