Majority in EU's biggest states believes bloc 'sold out' in US tariff deal

Summary

A majority of people across the EU’s five biggest member states believe the European Commission sold citizens out when negotiating a “humiliating” tariff deal with Donald Trump that “benefits the US” far more than Europe, a survey has shown.The poll, by Cluster17 for the European affairs debate platform Le Grand Continent, found 77% of respondents – ranging from 89% in France to 50% in Poland – thought the deal would benefit above all the US economy, with only 2% believing it would benefit Europe’s.Across the five countries, which accounted for about 60% of the bloc’s population, an average of 52% described the deal agreed in July by Trump and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, as a “humiliation”.Under the deal, the EU is to remove tariffs on all US industrial goods and provide preferential market access for a wide range of US seafood and agricultural goods. Most EU goods entering the US, however, will be subject to a 15% baseline tariff.In addition, EU firms are to invest an extra $600bn (£443m) in the US, and the bloc must buy $750bn of US energy and dramatically increase spending on US defence exports – requirements viewed negatively by more than two-thirds of poll respondents.Von der Leyen hailed the agreement as “a huge deal” that brought “stability” and “predictability”, as well as avoiding Trump’s threatened 30% tariff rate. However, commentators have argued that the EU gave up far more that the US, and in effect capitulated to Washington’s bullying.That is a view shared by most Europeans, judging by the poll, which was published on Tuesday. An average of 75% of respondents said von der Leyen had defended European interests “very” or “fairly” badly.Almost 70% said they would be willing to boycott US goods over the terms of the deal; 44% considered Trump “an enemy of Europe”; 47% felt he had “autocratic tendencies”; and 36% said he “behaves like a dictator”.More than three-quarters of those surveyed said they were very or fairly dissatisf...