Interdiction des exportations de diesel : Trump devrait y renoncer, positivent des responsables européens

Dublin — Senior European Union officials expressed cautious optimism on Tuesday about the possibility of President Donald Trump reversing his threat to ban diesel exports for ninety days in order to combat rising prices. Ireland's Energy Minister, Darragh O’Brien, told journalists that administration officials in Washington assured him last week that such an embargo was unlikely.

O’Brien made this statement prior to a meeting in Dublin on Tuesday involving European energy ministers, who currently hold the rotating presidency of the EU. "It is clear that a ninety-day diesel export ban would have notable repercussions for us in the EU," O’Brien said. "But according to information I gathered in Washington last week, there does not appear to be any willingness to go in that direction."

At the same meeting in Dublin, European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jørgensen welcomed comments from US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who stated that a diesel export ban would not work. Last week, Donald Trump seemed to back the idea of temporarily blocking diesel exports as prices rose due to the war in Iran and Moscow's restrictions on its own exports following strikes against Russian refineries.

Such a move would send shockwaves through European energy markets, with American diesel representing over 50% of EU diesel imports and 10% of its consumption, according to S&P Global Energy. "We will remain vigilant," O’Brien vowed. "But when talking with other members of the administration, it seems this is something that is unlikely to happen.

I think that a diesel export ban, like other fuel bans, would have repercussions for the United States themselves, as well as for other fuels." This article was first published by POLITICO in English and then edited in French by Jean-Christophe Catalon.