Seventh, a friend which is the largest provider of humanitarian and development assistance in the world. In other words the EU is by far the most important friend and partner the US has in today's turbulent world. But we are not an uncritical friend. We make our concerns known to the US whether it is about unilateral sanctions, NMD, non-payment of UN dues, status of the International criminal Court, etc. The US and EU have much more in common than we disagree about.
Trade disputes are but a tiny fraction of our total trade flows.
Many of our disputes, whether with respect to foreign policy or in the field of trade policy, have their roots in important cultural differences between our societies, which we need to analyze and better understand. In the economic sphere, differences arise between the EU and US for a variety of reasons. For example, because of our different histories, we have different attitudes to and different systems of regulation. In Europe, the approach is generally that every important economic activity should take place under a legal framework. In the US, the starting point for regulation is that you don't regulate unless a problem arises.