Phil Hogan was not even confirmed as the EU’s trade supremo when he drew the ire of Donald Trump’s envoy to Brussels. On the day his appointment as EU trade commissioner was announced – but before it was approved by the European parliament – the outspoken politician said he hoped the EU could get Trump to “see the error of his ways” and abandon his “reckless behaviour”. Gordon Sondland, Trump’s controversial ambassador to Brussels, called this “very patronising”.
Hogan will seek to strike a more emollient tone this week on his first official visit to Washington as trade commissioner, in charge of negotiating deals for a post-Brexit EU of 450 million people.
It’s a long way from Kilkenny council, where Hogan began his political career with the centre-right Fine Gael party, aged 22. In 1995, he resigned as junior finance minister when an aide leaked the budget and in 2013, as environment minister, he presided over the imposition of bitterly contested water charges.
In 2014, Hogan was sent to Brussels as agriculture commissioner, where he was dubbed “Farmer Phil” by then European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker. It was ideal training for navigating the deep waters of trade policy, where the EU fights hard to defend its food standards and the protected status of cheeses, hams, wines and more. He has been an acerbic critic of the British government, accusing Boris Johnson of gambling with peace in Northern Ireland. But on this three-day trip to Washington, where he will meet trade representative Robert Lighthizer, Hogan is looking to build bridges.
“This isn’t an exercise in heavy- handed diplomacy; rather it’s one of identifying problems and potential solutions,” Hogan’s head of cabinet, Peter Power, told the Observer. “The visit is a pitch for cooperation on common agenda.”
Hogan, who has said he wants to “reset” the relationship with the US, seeks a common approach to issues such as China, where both sides have accused Beijing of intellectual property theft and illegal steel subsidies. The EU also hopes to persuade Washington to reform, rather than wreck, the World Trade Organization. Last month the pillar of global trading was thrown into turmoil by a US veto on new judges for its dispute settlement body.
Hogan believes many US complaints about the WTO and its appellate body are not unreasonable. Power said: “He is adamant that the WTO is in need of fundamental reform – tinkering around the edges is no longer enough.”
But the trade commissioner is dealing with a president in an election year who once described the EU as a “foe” on trade.
Maria Demertzis of Brussels thinktank Bruegel says: “The timing is not right when it comes to resetting the trade relationship. [Trump] is being impeached so he wants a decoy. The threat of more tariffs on European products is very real.”
Even with a conventional US administration, the two sides would have plenty to argue about, from the 16-year-old Boeing-Airbus saga to EU plans to penalise foreign imports from countries deemed to be failing to act on the climate emergency.
The US reacted furiously to a proposed French tax on internet companies that would hit Google, Apple and Facebook. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire, who met Hogan last week, said that the US and France would aim to reach a compromise within a fortnight.
EU insiders worry that Trump, seeking to dial down confrontation with Iran and trade war with China, has Europe in his sights. Despite a truce in 2018, the president has continued to claim that US imports of European cars are a security threat.
Demertzis warns: “If there is a tariff [on EU cars] from the US, there will be a proportional retaliation that will cause an equal amount of damage.”
