Trade Relations between EU and USA in the Period of Two Last Administrations

This study is dedicated to trade relations between the EU and the US during the last two US administrations. Due to the fact that trade between the parties is not balanced, asymmetric in favor of the EU (due to high European standards applied to the certain goods, which does not correspond to American products), the policy of the United States is structured in such a way as to bring foreign trade indicators into balance. However, strategies for reducing the trade deficit have differed over the last two administrations. If B. Obama proposed to the EU to create a Transatlantic partnership, which would ensure the free movement of goods between the parties, then D. Trump, on the contrary, tried to close the market from a large flow of European goods, introduced restrictive measures in the form of duties. As for the EU, its foreign trade policy is structured in such a way as to ensure complete security, economic development and prosperity, strictly following its internal interests and priorities. Therefore, due to the perceived disadvantage for the EU, the reaction to proposals to build bilateral relations is the refusal to sign the TTIP treaty, as well as the introduction of retaliatory protectionist measures in order to ensure economic security and development within the Union. The main goal of this work is to identify the factors that influenced the building of different trade relations between the EU and the United States during the last two American administrations. Usually, the difference in strategies is explained by the personality characteristics of the president in power, but this factor is considered insufficient and superficial to explain the reasons for the different trade policies applied. The problem lies much deeper and is explained by intra-European changes and reshuffles, as well as internal American indicators, which together determine what trade policy between the EU and the United States will be, what strategies will be proposed by the United States and what will be the response from the EU. The internal indicators and benchmarks of the EU in a certain time period determine what policy the US can offer in order, firstly, to reflect its interests in reducing the trade deficit and economic improvement, and secondly, so that the EU adopts a policy and does not break off relations. Thus, using the method of structured, focused comparison, the intra-European and American factors, which together influenced the formed American trade strategies in relation to the EU, were revealed in the work, conclusions were drawn about which factors under study led to the possibility of promoting the liberal idea of B. Obama on the creation of TTIP, and which to the protectionist policy of D. Trump. The paper also focuses on conducting a comparative analysis of trade relations between the EU and the United States during the second administration of B. Obama’s and D. Trump's administration, describes the reaction and response from the EU to the methods of trade interaction between the parties proposed by the United States.