The EU's push to lock in a U.S. trade deal before new tariffs hit is running into a specific obstacle: Donald Trump's personal antagonism toward German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Bloomberg Politics reports. The bilateral chill between Washington and Berlin is complicating bloc-wide ratification, because Germany's weight inside EU trade politics is decisive — if Berlin can't carry water, the deal stalls.
That's the play here. Trump is using executive tariff authority — power Congress surrendered incrementally since the 1970s — as a personal pressure instrument against a NATO ally whose leader publicly rebuked him. Merz gets punished; the other 26 member states absorb collateral damage.
For Brussels, the strategic read is ugly: the counterparty isn't a president bound by institutional norms, he's a principal who conflates bilateral grievances with multilateral negotiations. Every week of delay costs EU exporters leverage they won't recover.