U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened to retaliate against European countries if the EU favors domestic weapons-makers in a drive to rearm the continent.
The U.S. Department of Defense objected to any EU effort to limit American arms-manufacturers’ access to the European market and warned that would trigger a reciprocal response. […]
”The United States strongly opposes any changes to the Directive that would limit U.S. industry’s ability to support or otherwise participate in EU member state national defense procurements,” the U.S. administration wrote ahead of a planned update of EU defense procurement laws.
”Protectionist and exclusionary policies that strong-arm American companies out of the market — when Europe’s largest defense firms continue to greatly benefit from market access in the United States — are the wrong course of action,” it added.
Washington’s comments highlight a paradox in the U.S. approach to Europe: While the Trump administration has repeatedly told Europeans that it wants them to shoulder the bulk of the continent’s conventional defense, the U.S. doesn’t want that to come at the expense of American defense firms. Läs artikel