BRUSSELS, February 20. /TASS/. The US administration has threatened European countries with harsh retaliatory measures for possible restrictions on the access of US companies to the EU arms market, the European edition of Politico reported.
"The United States strongly opposes any changes to the Directive that would limit U.S. industry’s ability to support or otherwise participate in EU member state national defense procurements," the US administration wrote ahead of a planned update of EU defense procurement laws, Politico said.
"Protectionist and exclusionary policies that strong-arm American companies out of the market – when Europe’s largest defense firms continue to greatly benefit from market access in the United States – are the wrong course of action."
According to Politico, the retaliation will be reciprocal, coming in the form of cutting Europe off from the American arms market.