It started with a kiss: how Juncker wooed Trump
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[July 26, 2018]
By Alastair Macdonald
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Jean-Claude Juncker
was hailed as a hero by European business on Thursday for making Donald
Trump blink and withdraw a threat to slap punitive import tariffs on EU
cars and so escalate a transatlantic trade war.
The White House deal is one to savor for the European Commission
president, two weeks after doubts were raised, notably in Germany, over
his fitness for the job after he was taken unwell during a NATO summit
where the U.S. president trashed his European allies.
The former Luxembourg premier and 30-year veteran of EU backroom
haggling and his aides stressed the limits to what was achieved -- well
aware of Trump's ability to change tack. And though Germany cheered that
Juncker had bought their car makers time while talks are launched on
freeing up trade, France sounded more cautious on possible new U.S. farm
imports.
Yet there was widespread praise among European governments and business
for the Commission's strategy, in renewing offers that Trump had
dismissed in the past for more free trade talks and sticking to its own
threat of retaliation against U.S. products by the world's biggest
economic bloc. There was appreciation too for Juncker's personal charm
offensive.
A photograph of Juncker planting one of his trademark kisses on Trump's
cheek at the White House set the tone, prompting the U.S. president to
tweet about "love" across the Atlantic.
"A lot of love went into their preparations," a Brussels diplomat from
one EU member state said.
"Juncker knows how to tame Trump" wrote Vienna's left-leaning Der
Standard, describing the deal as a "masterpiece".
"The old fox showed that, even from the most difficult of political
situations, he can find a diplomatic way out."
"DEAR DONALD"
Juncker, who has not spared his criticism of Trump in public or private,
also clearly thought about how to break the ice and presented the
president with a framed array of photographs showing U.S. war graves in
his native Luxembourg -- including that of one of Trump's personal
heroes, General George Patton.
"Dear Donald, we have history in common," Juncker wrote and later
expanded on the theme of shared values. It was all rather different in
tone from a comment by Juncker last month when he said Trump had called
him a "brutal killer".
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U.S. President Donald Trump and President of the European Commission
Jean-Claude Juncker walk together before speaking about trade
relations in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, U.S.,
July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Juncker told the Politico news website that talks had been helped "by the fact
that we get along well, surprisingly" and that he had spoken his mind -- firmly
but politely -- at last month's G7 summit: "He doesn’t like those who beat about
the bush," Juncker said of Trump.
Aides to Juncker conceded that the EU delegation had been surprised at how well
the White House meeting went, having been at pains to play down expectations
that he could succeed where others have failed to persuade Trump to back down on
tariffs.
Pressed to explain the success, one senior EU official said Trump's team
appeared to have been tempted by offers to increase EU imports of liquefied
natural gas and soybeans and cooperate on challenging China's trade practices.
The Americans also focused on the fact that Juncker had 28 EU economies behind
him and the stakes were high.
"I think they weighed what it would mean to open up a 50 billion euro trade
nightmare," the official said.
"They wouldn't know how this would end."
Even some European politicians generally wary of the car industry and of past
efforts to ease U.S. trade sounded impressed.
"I'd like to express my respect for this achievement by Juncker," tweeted Jan
Philipp Albrecht, a member of the European Parliament from the German Greens.
"Yes, there is a big IF with this unstable Trump administration and there are
many unanswered questions ... But managing this shows the real potential of EU
leadership."
(Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen; Editing by Stephen Powell)
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