Ireland's EU Commissioner Michael McGrath has said the EU is ready to bring forward plans to buy more US oil and gas as a way to build closer ties with the new Trump administration.
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s video address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr McGrath told RTÉ News: "It is a credible option. The EU has been preparing for the incoming administration for quite some time now, and stands ready to put forward a package which would help to improve and indeed strengthen the Transatlantic Economic and trading relationship.
"We recognise, from the US point of view, the trade deficit that they have with the EU is one of concern.
"We are prepared to work with them to see how we can address that in a mutually beneficial manner, but always with the view to avoiding any kind of tariff tit-for-tat trade war, which unfortunately will only cost both of our economies at a time when we really need to be supporting each other and underpinning the importance of the international trade based order and well-established and respected rules."
On Monday evening, following his inauguration, Mr Trump suggested the EU could avoid tariffs, which he has threatened to impose on Canada, China and Mexico, if it bought more US oil and gas.
It is understood that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already set out plans for the EU to collectively buy more Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from the US.
Mr Trump has frequently complained about the EU’s car exports to the US with few vehicles shipped east across the Atlantic.
The US trade deficit with Europe stood at €155.8 billion in 2023, according to Eurostat.
The US is already the largest supplier of LNG to the EU, supplying 46% of its LNG imports and 15% of oil imports in the third quarter of 2024.
EU imports of LNG from Russia have increased in the past year, with member states divided about cutting off imports of LNG from Russia altogether.
A decision to cut that off through sanctions could steer importers to look across the Atlantic.
Mr McGrath, who is in Davos for bilateral meetings, said the EU was determined to ensure a continued strong and close trade and investment relationship with the US.
"We are each other's largest partner. Trade between the EU and US last year amounted to about €1.5 trillion, so the reality is that if you get into a tariff war, there are only losers," he said.
He said the EU had been examining all scenarios in the event of a trade war.
"We stand ready to defend the interests of the European Union, as people would expect us to do," he said.
Trump to address leaders
Mr Trump will address global business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos by video link.
The address is expected to be his first major foreign policy speech since his inauguration.
Last night, Mr Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin via social media that he should negotiate over Ukraine immediately, or face what he called taxation, tariffs and sanctions.
The annual gathering at Davos has been consumed by Mr Trump's return, with chief executives and political leaders all theorising what it might mean for the global economy, not to mention the conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine.
This afternoon they will hear directly from the new President.
Mr Trump has already upended much of his predecessor's domestic agenda.
Thus far he has announced some jaw-dropping ideas on the foreign policy front, such as potentially seizing Greenland and the Panama Canal by force.
He has pulled the US out of the Paris Climate accords and the World Health Organization.
What he says about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be keenly watched.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has already praised his "robust diplomacy" in helping unblock the Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
Mr Trump has boasted he could end the Ukraine war in a day, his advisors are now suggesting six months.
On his Truth Social platform he told Mr Putin he should negotiate now or Russia and other unnamed participants would face tariffs and sanctions.
Given that Russia exports little to the US and is already subject to sweeping sanctions, experts are still trying to figure out what that means.
No winners
His trade partners had a chance to react in Davos earlier this week.
Without invoking Mr Trump's name, Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang warned that "there are no winners in a trade war".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to defend free trade but he took a conciliatory tone, saying that he had good earlier discussions with Trump.
Ms von der Leyen said that Brussels was ready to negotiate with Mr Trump, but she also underscored the bloc's diverging policy with him on climate, saying it would stick by the Paris accord.
Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino dismissed Mr Trump's claims to the Panama Canal, which was built by the US but handed to the central American country in 1999 under two-decade old treaties.
Mr Mulino said he was "not worried" and that Panama would not be "distracted by this type of statement".
The Republican president also has fans in Davos.
One of his biggest cheerleaders on the world stage, Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei, will make a speech to the WEF, hours before Mr Trump.
"The world should celebrate the arrival of President Trump," Mr Milei said at a Bloomberg event yesterday.
"The golden era he proposes for the US will shine a light for the whole world as it will spell the end of the woke ideology, which is doing so much harm to the planet," Mr Milei said.
One of his backers in the business world, Marc Benioff, the chief executive of US tech firm Salesforce, was also enthusiastic at the same Bloomberg chat.
"I'm very positive," he said. "I'm just looking forward to seeing what's going to happen. And it's a new day and, it's an exciting moment."
Additional reporting from AFP and Reuters
