American stock markets reacted negatively after the United States imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped over one percent, S&P500 dropped 0.54 percent, while the Nasdaq was 0.16 percent in the red. [...]

Unable to win concessions from from its trading partners ahead of the Friday deadline, the US has introduced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. The new 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico come into force at midnight (04:00 GMT, Friday), according to US Commerce Secretary Ross. [...]

By trying to bring an end to the Russo-European Nord Stream 2 project, the US is pursuing its own economic interests rather than taking care of Europe's energy security. Washington is seeking to boost sales of its own expensive liquefied natural gas to Europe, thus undermining the Old Continent's competitiveness. [...]

Blocked from viewing US news outlets, overwhelmed by emails, Europeans shared memes and cheered. Facebook and Google, though, may have little to cheer about, now that they’re sued for “forced consent” over new privacy rules. The new set of strict regulations, also known as the General Data Protection Regulation (or briefly GDPR), was passed in April 2016 and came into effect on Friday to saf [...]

The United Kingdom and the European Union face a critical choice about the direction of future trade policies with the rest of the world. Should the EU deepen its already heavy exposure to the US even as the country turns inward, or should it begin to diversify its trade relations toward a less familiar albeit increasingly prosperous China? [...]

China’s state-owned energy giant CNPC is ready to replace French energy company Total’s stake in the Iranian South Pars gas project. In 2017, Total and CNPC signed a 20-year contract worth 4.8 billion dollars to develop Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars field. Sputnik spoke with political analyst Tom McGregor about CNPC’s acquisition plan. [...]

According to Reuters' sources, the meeting will solely focus on the implementation issues and details of the Iran nuclear deal. Diplomats from Germany, France, Britain, led by senior EU diplomat Helga Schmid, and also from Russia and China, will be meeting in Vienna next week to discuss a new agreement with Iran similar to the 2015 deal, but one that would put curbs on Tehran's ballistic [...]

France’s economy minister has suggested that the EU may compensate European companies affected by US sanctions on Iran, stressing that the bloc should not accept Washington as “the economic gendarme of the planet.” [...]

Capital investment in 24 of the EU’s 28 member states has fallen dramatically over the past ten years, according to Eurostat. Countries in Europe’s east and south experienced the biggest drops in investment after the 2008 crisis. Investment decreased on average by 2.3 percent, falling to 20.1 percent of GDP last year. It stood at 22.4 percent from 2007 to 2017 period. [...]

The project is beneficial both for Russia and European countries and doesn't pose any threat in terms of the EU's dependence on Moscow's energy supplies, the director general of the Austrian oil and gas concern OMV, Rainer Seele, told DPA. Decisions on the issue of the remaining permits for the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline are likely to be made in late summer 2018, Rainer Seele s [...]

In spite of US threats, the EU is all set to protect its economic interests in Iran and has started implementing a 1996 law that would prohibit European companies from complying with any sanctions the US would reintroduce against Tehran. “Europe should be grateful to President Trump, because thanks to him we have got rid of old illusions,” European Council President Donald Tusk said at the sta [...]

The attacks by European leaders against US President Donald Trump are getting sharper by the day. On the day Trump announced that he was ripping up the Iran deal, and that the US would impose sanctions on European companies trading with that country, the French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said that European states refused to be treated like "vassals" of the US [...]

The former boss of the NSA and CIA, Michael Hayden, predicts that the decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran despite protests from EU leaders will harm US relations with its allies and lead to a trans-Atlantic argument. Commenting to German media outlet Spiegel on the recent decision of the US president to abandon the 2015 JCPOA, the former head of the NSA and CIA, General Michael Hayden, stated: [...]

Donald Trump’s trashing of the Iran nuclear deal this week was not just an attack on Iranian sovereign interests. The US president was also poking European allies in the eye. In abruptly withdrawing the US from the international nuclear treaty, Trump warned that his administration was preparing to re-impose harsh sanctions on Tehran, and that those sanctions would also hit European commercial in [...]

The European Union has moved to protect the interests of its companies that do business in Iran, following the United States decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal. President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US was withdrawing from the landmark pact unleashed a wave of criticism from the international community. Now the EU has threatened to take the US to the World Trade Organizatio [...]

In late May, President Donald Trump warned that if the European Union does not remove tariffs and trade barriers against the United States soon, his administration will place a 20 percent tariff on all cars coming from the EU. [...]

The European Union was formed to rip off the US, President Donald Trump said during a rally, as he vowed to “take on” the bloc and China, saying that the days of “disastrous trade deals” are over.  Trump unleashed a tirade aimed at the European Union at a campaign-style rally in Michigan on Saturday. [...]

Russia's Crimea is hosting the 2018 Yalta Economic Forum. The event is being held just a few weeks after several European nations decided to expel Russian diplomats and to follow Washington’s lead in toughening sanctions against Moscow. Austria wasn’t among the «hardliners». Sputnik sat down with Detlef Wimmer – the deputy mayor of Austria’s Linz. [...]

The EU won't support the Nord Stream 2 project as it attaches great significance to the gas pipelines going through Ukraine in context of diversification of supply routes, that's the message from the head of the European Energy Commission Dominik Ristori. Sputnik discussed this with Justin Dargin, global energy scholar at the University of Oxford. [...]

On Monday, a number of European countries, as well as the United States and Canada, announced they were expelling Russian diplomats over the Skripal case. Radio Sputnik discussed the significance of the diplomatic response by the Western powers with Srdja Trifkovic, a US journalist and writer on international affairs. [...]

It didn’t take much effort for the US and UK to make the EU fall in line in the Skripal case, Virginia State Senator Richard Black told RT. The bloc is a “soft dictatorship” in which only key players need to be swayed, he said. The White House’s claims that it played a key role in making European countries act in unison when punishing Russia with expulsions over the Skripal saga might not [...]

The UK must provide solid evidence of Russia's alleged involvement in the Skripal case, the Czech president has said. While he did not oppose the country’s move to expel Russian diplomats, he believes it to be “a bit superfluous.” “I want to see the facts. I will certainly welcome if the United Kingdom presents some evidence that the Russians wanted to kill the double agent Skripal,” Cz [...]