Merz-Trump Talks Overshadowed by Middle East Conflict

The US-Israeli attack on Iran may prevent Friedrich Merz achieving his two main goals in Tuesday’s talks with Donald Trump in Washington: securing more clarity on American trade policy and persuading the president to get tougher on Russia.

The US Supreme Court’s ruling striking down Trump’s use of emergency tariff powers triggered fresh uncertainty for European companies exporting to the world’s biggest economy, and called into question the EU-US trade pact sealed last year.