Europe's widening surplus with US could fan trade-war tensions

The European Union's trade surplus with the US widened by 6.8% over the past year despite threats of a trade war from US president Donald Trump, who has branded the relationship between the two regions as unfair.

The EU had a trade surplus with the US of €120.8 billion in 2017, up from €113.1 billion in 2016, according to data compiled by Eurostat. Exports from the EU to the US increased to €375 billion in 2017 from €363.5 billion the year prior, while imports from the US grew to €254.2 billion from €250.4 billion.

The data comes as the EU is seeking to keep markets open worldwide in the face of Trump's anti-globalisation stance and to underscore the bloc's continuing commercial clout as the UK prepares to leave in March 2019. Meanwhile, growth of US exports to the region has been the slowest among all of the bloc's major trading partners.

The EU recently struck free-trade pacts with Canada and Japan, is pushing to wrap up a deal with Latin America and is gearing up for talks with Australia and New Zealand.

The change comes amid heightened tensions between Europe and the US over the possibility of a trade dispute, with Washington threatening to restrict American purchases of foreign steel and aluminum on national-security grounds.

In late January, the EU gave Trump a fresh warning about any US curbs on imports from Europe by pledging rapid retaliation, highlighting the persistent risk of a trans-Atlantic trade war. The alert by the European Commission also followed Trump's decision earlier in January to impose tariffs on US imports of solar panels and washing machines on the basis of rarely used "safeguard" rules.