Trade negotiations have for years focused on the rules of the road for commerce between nations.

Under President Trump, the deal making has been more direct, especially when it comes to energy. Countries are now agreeing to purchase American fossil fuels, in specific amounts and often years into the future, whether or not their economies will demand it or whether the United States will have the ability to supply it.

That adds a layer of government sway over what are typically open market transactions. And it’s not clear how — or whether — political leaders will get private companies to go along.

“This is new, and generally that’s because in trade agreements you want things that are clear and enforceable,” said David Goldwyn, a former U.S. diplomat and U.S. Energy Department official. “These energy commitments are neither clear nor necessarily enforceable. They’re more aspirational, political encouragements.”

The European Union, for example, committed to purchase $750 billion in U.S. energy products — including crude oil, nuclear reactor fuel, natural gas and other petroleum derivatives — over three years. On an annual basis, that would amount to more than three times the amount the bloc bought last year from the United States.

The European Union has been buying more American gas since Russia, previously a big supplier, attacked Ukraine in 2022, and there is appetite to buy more. But purchasing $250 billion a year would require the bloc to use the United States as essentially its only supplier.