Frankfurt, May 26 (AP) The European Union's chief trade negotiator on Monday said he had “good calls” with Trump administration officials and the EU was “fully committed” to reaching a trade deal by July 9, after the US president agreed to delay his threatened 50 per cent tariff on European goods.
Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on X that the EU's executive commission was pushing “at pace” towards an EU-US deal and the two sides were in constant contact.
Sefcovic's calls with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer came a day after US President Donald Trump said he would delay implementation of the 50 per cent tariff from June 1 until July 9 to buy time for negotiations with the 27-country EU.
That announcement came after Trump's call with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who told Trump that she “wants to get down to serious negotiations,” according to the US president on Sunday.
In a social media post Friday, Trump had threatened to impose the 50 per cent tariff on EU goods, asserting that the bloc had been “very difficult to deal with” on trade and that negotiations were “going nowhere.”
The stakes are high given the size of the US-EU trading relationship. Although the trade partners don't have a free trade agreement like the one the US has with Mexico and Canada, some USD 1.8 trillion in goods and services cross the Atlantic in both directions each year.
EU Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho told a news conference that von der Leyen and Trump agreed to “fast-track” the negotiations. The result of the call means that “there is a new impetus for these negotiations, and we will take it from there ... from our side, we always said we were ready to make a deal.”
The EU has offered Trump a “zero for zero” deal in which tariffs would be removed on industrial goods including automobiles, but the US administration has said it will not lower tariffs below a 10 per cent baseline imposed on almost all its trading partners. Trump has also announced tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and automobiles. (AP) RHL