The reason U.S. ETFs cannot be traded is that under European regulations, information about the product must be translated into multiple languages so that retail customers can assess their risk. Most U.S. ETFs can only be traded by institutional investors. You can find equivalent European versions for most U.S. ETFs. Usually they are offered on the London, Dublin, Milan, Luxembourg or Frankfurt exchanges. You can also find a list of ETFs available at Mexem: in the menu of your client portal, look under Markets. Then select the Mutual Fund Scanner, just enter the country of origin of the fund and a huge list will become visible, and can also be downloaded in excel, with all funds available at IB/MEXEM.