‘We hope to work something out on a fair trade deal with Europe’  

Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he hoped “to work something out on a fair trade deal with Europe.”

Trump spoke during a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who made his first visit to the Trump White House on Wednesday.

Juncker’s visit came during what many experts see as an historic low-point for U.S.-European relations, which have become frayed by Trump’s trade wars, his fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump’s skepticism of multilateral institutions like NATO and the European Union.

In announcing Juncker’s visit, the White House said in a statement on July 17 that the two men would discuss “a wide range of priorities, including foreign and security policy, counterterrorism, energy security, and economic growth,” with a “focus on improving transatlantic trade and forging a stronger economic partnership.”

Trump’s own comments about Europe, however, stand in stark contrast to the White House message. “The European Union — outside of China and a couple of others — treats us, on trade, as badly as you can be treated,” Trump said during a May visit from NATO Secretary General Jan Stollenberg. “They have trade barriers. Our farmers aren’t allowed, to a large extent, to sell their product into the European Union.”

According to Trump’s own Department of Agriculture, however, this is not true. On the contrary, the USDA reported that in 2017, American agricultural exports to the European Union totaled $11.2 billion, making Europe the fifth largest export market in the world for U.S. farmers.

As Juncker arrived in Washington on Tuesday, Trump already appeared to be setting a low bar for the meetings. “The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade,” he tweeted Tuesday. “I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready – but they won’t!”