EU trade chief warns Biden over ‘Buy American’ push
Valdis Dombrovskis says EU will track whether US is straying outside WTO commitments
Europe’s trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis has fired a warning shot at new U.S. President Joe Biden over his plans to press U.S. authorities to “Buy American.”
In an interview with POLITICO and other media, Dombrovskis said the EU, the world’s biggest trade bloc, would closely monitor whether preferential treatment for U.S. contractors on public projects contravened international commitments.
“We will be assessing to which extent the U.S. complies with its [World Trade Organization] commitments under the global procurement agreement,” he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden has already started tightening U.S. rules that force federal authorities to buy from American suppliers. This could run foul of Washington’s commitments at the World Trade Organization (WTO), under which it wins access to other countries’ public procurement markets in exchange for keeping its own market open.
