The US tried to put the results of the failed EU summit in a affirmative light

Washington officials tried to present the deficiency of results of the trade summit with the European Union at a press conference in Brussels in a favourable light, where they discussed the anticipation of the US abolishing excessive duties on steel and aluminium – reported Swiss publication Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ).

The EU trade summit was held on 20 October to discuss, among another things, the introduction of an agreement that could end the trade conflict under US president Donald Trump, who approved additional import duties on steel and aluminium in 2018. According to the latest statements from Brussels, the summit participants failed to scope an agreement as Washington did not support the WTO-compliant approach.

"So what is this dispute from Washington's perspective? Answers were expected to appear from an online discussion that the U.S. State Department organised for correspondents from many media based in Brussels on Tuesday evening. "But this event was more like a satire," reports correspondent NZZ Hanzueli Shoehli, who attended the conference.

According to him, direct questions were not allowed at the conference, conflict topics were barely addressed, and American summit reports contained empty and simplified phrases that embellished reality. For example, Mike Pyle, US President's deputy national safety advisor on global economical issues, said that "significant progress" has been made over the last 2 years and that a common knowing of the sources of overcapacity on the global marketplace has been developed.

"To put it briefly, the Americans have done everything to strengthen the unpleasant impression (happiness) created on the basis of statements made by the European side," said Schoechli, referring to the disagreement between the heads of the European Commission and the European Council Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel on support for Israel. So von der Leyen full supports the Israeli response, while Michel called on Israel to respect global humanitarian law.

Earlier, US Ambassador to the European Union Mark Gitenstein said that the United States would extend the suspension of duties on imports of steel and aluminium products from the European Union if the parties needed more time to negotiate. Bloomberg quoted sources in early September that the US and the European Union were working on an agreement to impose fresh duties on steel from China and another countries to end the trade conflict under US president Donald Trump.

The United States, for Donald Trump's presidency, imposed duties on imports of steel and aluminium products from the European Union in the first half of 2018 – 25% and 10% respectively. The EU has imposed retaliation duties on imports of different goods from the United States. These measures affected trade worth respective billion euros per year. As Bloomberg wrote, in 2021 the parties agreed to suspend funds for each other's goods and set a deadline by 31 October 2023 to find a final solution to the dispute.