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The EU’s final trade agreement is “impossible” before July 9, so both sides aimed at less detailed “agreement in principle”, European Commission President Ursula von der Lane said on Thursday before talks in Washington.
EU and US approach temporary agreement after nearly three months of negotiations to avoid Donald Trump’s threat to impose 50 % tariffs of EU goods next week.
“It is a huge task because we have the largest trade volume between the EU and the United States, 1.5 million euros (annually) – a very complex and huge amount,” she said at a news conference.
“What we are directing is in principle,” she added, saying that 90 days that were allowed for talks made “agreement in detail in detail”.
The UK also agreed to an agreement in principle with the United States, she said. “As far as I am informed, there are only two countries so far that have made an agreement in principle.” The United States announced a deal with Vietnam on Wednesday.
However, both deals left us “reciprocal” tariffs. Vietnam Accept 20 % and UK 10.
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Jefcovic is today in Washington to talk a deal before the July 9 deadline, after which Trump threatened to increase “reciprocal” tariffs to 50 %. He will meet with US Secretary of Finance, Scott Bilen, and then joint trade secretary Howard Latvno and trade envoy Jameimison Grier.
Livel said countries without deals would receive increased tariffs after July 9th.
EU diplomats told the Financial Times that the block would probably accept 10 %tax boards, but still wanted to get a reduction in sectoral tariffs for products such as steel, to 50 %, and vehicles and parts of vehicles to 25 %.
It is ready to commit to buying more American products to reduce its trade surplus.
Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor, who is under huge pressure from his automotive industry, repeated his call last week for a fast deal.
“This is not a petty -made, comprehensive trade agreement with the United States has been negotiating the last details,” he said.
“What is at stake here is the rapid resolution of the customs dispute, especially for the key industries of our country – the chemical industry, the pharmaceutical industry, mechanical engineering, aluminum, steel and the automotive industry … We need a quick result now. Better and simple than long and complicated for months.”
UK provided a quota of 100,000 export of vehicles annually with 10 % tariffs. Exports to Jet -Motors in the UK and other air space components in the United States are also spared US taxes.
He missed bioethanol tariffs only from the United States and increased quotas for beef imports in the United States.
US tariffs cover about 380 billion euros of annual EU trade with the United States, equivalent to about 70 % of the total.
America is considering expanding higher sectoral taxes on goods, including copper, lumber, air parts, pharmaceuticals, chips and critical minerals, which would include almost all EU trade.
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