EU, US to end trade tariffs, call for new study into Covid-19 origins, summit draft says

2021 Brussels Summit

The leaders of the European Union and the United States are set to commit at a summit in Brussels next week to ending their transatlantic trade disputes, and to call for a new study into the origins of Covid-19, according to a draft communique. The seven-page draft, seen by Reuters, seeks to show concrete results of the ‘new dawn’ hailed by EU leaders when US President Joe Biden took over from Donald Trump in January. The draft, which will be discussed by EU ambassadors on Wednesday, commits to ending a long-running spat over subsidies to aircraft makers before July 11, and to lifting steel tariffs imposed three years ago by December. Despite pressure by US steel industry groups to keep the ‘Section 232’ national security tariffs imposed by Trump, the draft said: ‘We commit to work towards lifting before 1 December 2021 all additional/punitive tariffs on both sides linked to our steel and aluminium dispute.’