内容摘要：Seats in the National Assembly and local councils are up for grabs but Évariste Ndayishimiye is safe in his role as president as he is serving a seven-year term that ends in 2027.

Seats in the National Assembly and local councils are up for grabs but Évariste Ndayishimiye is safe in his role as president as he is serving a seven-year term that ends in 2027.

It was only briefly mentioned by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a gaggle with reporters on Monday, and not at all during briefings at the White House and State Department on Tuesday.Sources familiar with the visit suggested several topics that could dominate the conversation.

Of these, tariffs would be among the most pressing, particularly after Trump doubled import taxes on steel and aluminium this week, prompting warnings of EU countermeasures.The US President also repeatedly expressed dismay with the speed of tariff negotiations with the EU. In May, he threatened to levy a 50% tariff on European goods, saying that it was "time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game".Trump later backtracked and delayed the tariffs until 9 July, a move that his US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer characterised as having a "fire lit" under the EU.

Germany is the EU's largest exporter to the US, leaving the country's businesses extremely agitated about any trade obstacles.Merz, a 69-year-old reputed millionaire with a corporate background, may feel confident about going toe-to-toe with Trump, who often hails himself as the consummate "dealmaker".

Whether the Chancellor will be able to smooth the path for EU negotiators, however, remains to be seen.

Constanze Stelzenmüller, an expert on German-US relations at the Brookings Institute, believes Merz's ability to push the negotiations along is limited, given that the EU as an institution has taken the lead on those talks."But back then Champagne wasn't included, and neither were wines stronger than 14 degrees of alcohol. So you can see the scale of the threat today."

The solution Mr Bauer is backing is free trade. No tariffs. But you'd expect him to say that, given that France and Europe run a big trade surplus with the US when it comes to wines and spirits.More surprising, perhaps, is the opinion of his American competitors in California and Oregon who, you might think, would be cracking open something a bit special to celebrate.

"This looks horrible from our perspective. We don't like it one bit," says Rex Stults, vice-president of industry relations at Napa Valley Vintners, which represents 540 wineries in the sunny slopes of California's most famous wine region."Wine is an international product. Even here in the Napa Valley, our wineries primarily get their corks from Portugal, and their oak barrels, a key component in winemaking, from France.