U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder told the Financial Times that European companies would face “devastating” retaliation from Washington if Brussels moves forward with plans to restrict American competitors’ access to parts of the European market.
The dispute centers on a European Commission proposal to reserve part of the radio spectrum that lets smartphones connect directly to satellites for European companies, a move that would restrict spectrum access for Chinese and American companies, including SpaceX.
Asked whether European companies should fear retaliation, Puzder said they “should be wary that it could happen and it would be very devastating for those companies,” given the size of the American market.
Puzder said that if the goal “is to make United States less competitive, I think that that’s not a legitimate goal of this kind of legislation.” “You don’t make European companies more competitive by making US companies less competitive,” he added.
SpaceX has sharply criticized the European Commission’s proposal, warning that the move risks degrading communications quality in Ukraine, where Starlink plays a critical role.
On October 14, Ukrainian military officials reported restrictions affecting the operation of Starlink satellite communication terminals, or more precisely, their military version, Starshield. The restrictions emerged amid growing tension between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, who, however, claims he did not order the terminals’ operation restricted. The Telegraph’s sources said that SpaceX head Elon Musk proposed restricting Starlink’s operation in Ukraine to Trump, and the U.S. president agreed.
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