The European Union will revive its offer to buy more American gas, betting that United States President Donald Trump is more open to negotiating after pausing his economy-shaking tariffs.
The bloc plans to reopen talks about boosting U.S. liquefied natural gas purchases and will offer specific proposals to address Trump’s anger about transatlantic trade, three European officials briefed on the talks told POLITICO, granted anonymity to speak about the closed-door discussions.
Specifically, they said, the EU is looking at ways to aggregate demand — a process that would let the continent place larger, pan-European orders to meet the White House's demands, but ideally at more competitive rates.
The offer is not necessarily new. The EU has been trying to engage the Trump administration for months on the issue, but diplomats said their outreach ran into confusion and disinterest in Washington. Now, however, the situation has changed — markets are cratering, and business leaders are begging Trump to change tactics.
Late Wednesday, however, Trump announced a 90-day pause on most global tariffs, insisting that America's partners now negotiate to eradicate trade barriers.
The EU is taking that as another opening to push its LNG offer. Officials have been open about their desire to consume more American fuel, framing it as a way for the continent to finally sever all energy links with warmongering Russia.
That said, there is only so much the EU can ultimately do. At the end of the day, it’s companies, not governments, that purchase LNG. And some EU countries have indicated their companies are already bringing in as much U.S. LNG as possible.
It’s also unclear how well a demand aggregation scheme would work. The EU launched a similar system after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, hoping to bring down sky-high prices. But few companies ultimately participated.
Posted by John3262005