US trade rep Greer says EU retaliation ignores US national security needs

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Wednesday that the European Union's retaliation against President Donald Trump's strengthened steel and aluminum tariffs shows that the bloc's trade policies are "out of step with reality."

Greer, in a rare public statement since taking office in late February, said the EU's retaliatory tariffs on 26 billion euros ($28 billion) worth of U.S. goods are contradictory to the bloc's resistance to U.S. efforts to work with the EU to deal with global excess capacity in the metals.

"The EU's punitive action completely disregards the national security imperatives of the United States – and indeed international security – and is yet another indicator that the EU's trade and economic policies are out of step with reality," Greer said.