The EU grew to become the world’s biggest trading bloc in an era of globalisation that suited its rules-based policymaking.
Now it faces a world in which trade is a tool of naked power, with the US prepared to force favourable terms with arbitrary tariffs, export controls and threats — the world of “Don Corleone Trump” as John Clarke, former head of the EU’s delegation to the WTO, calls him.
A quick way to eliminate tariffs, Trump said in April, would be for the EU to buy $350bn of liquefied natural gas and close the trade deficit with the US. The fact the EU cannot absorb that much was overlooked. In 2024, US LNG exports to the EU were around $13bn and met half its demand, according to Columbia University.
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