US presses Europe to ramp up American arms purchases
Photo: The US is aggressively lobbying for the purchase of American weapons in the EU (Getty Images)
The administration of US President Donald Trump is threatening to take action against European countries if the EU gives preference to domestic arms manufacturers in its efforts to rearm the continent, Politico reports.
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According to sources, US Defense Department officials made a number of comments during European Commission consultations after the EU executive branch requested feedback from governments and industry on European arms procurement rules.
"The United States strongly opposes any changes to the Directive that would limit US industry’s ability to support or otherwise participate in EU member state national defense procurements," the White House says ahead of the planned update to EU defense procurement laws.
Protectionist and exclusive policies that squeeze American companies out of the market, while the largest European defense companies continue to benefit significantly from access to the US market, are the wrong course of action.
Thus, Washington's comments highlight the paradox in the US approach to Europe: although the US administration has repeatedly told Europeans that it wants them to shoulder the main burden of defending the continent, the US still does not want to give up contracts for American defense companies.
Over the past few years, the European Commission has sought to increase the share of European weapons in the bloc's arsenals and procurement contracts in preparation for a potential conflict with Russia.
Such strong resistance from the Trump administration threatens to complicate any broader industrial efforts by the Commission to purchase European weapons. This will test how far European countries are willing to go to become more independent from the US.
US response
In its report, the Pentagon warned that any move to include an explicit Buy European clause in future procurement legislation would trigger a response from the US.
"If European preference measures were implemented in member states' national procurement laws, the United States would likely review all existing blanket waivers and exceptions to the ‘Buy American’ laws provided under or made in association with these our [Reciprocal Defense Procurement Agreements]," the Pentagon says.
In effect, this means that the US will close its market to European companies. About 19 of the 27 EU capitals have signed agreements with Washington that allow European companies to compete for some Pentagon contracts.
Europe faces serious gaps in arms production, which will require trillions of dollars and decades to fix.
