BRUSSELS, Belgium: The EU’s trade chief and his US counterpart will speak on Monday afternoon, the European Commission said, after President Donald Trump agreed to delay 50-percent tariffs on the bloc to allow more time for negotiations.
Trump had threatened Friday to impose the steep duties from June 1, voicing frustration that talks with the European Union were “going nowhere”, but reversed course after a phone call with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
Chief commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said there was a “new impetus for negotiations” following the call on Sunday.
“The discussions will continue as early as already this afternoon, where commissioner (Maros) Sefcovic will have a call with secretary for trade, (Howard) Lutnick,” Pinho told reporters in Brussels.
“It’s positive to see that there’s engagement also at the level of the presidents, and from our side, we always said that we were ready to make a deal,” she added.
EU trade spokesperson Olof Gill said the commission, which is leading talks with Washington on behalf of the 27-nation bloc, was “focused on a productive call” between Sefcovic and Lutnick.
Brussels and Washington have been negotiating in a bid to avert an all-out transatlantic trade war and had agreed to suspend tariff action on both sides until July.
Trump agreed on Sunday to stick with that arrangement, holding off on tariffs until July 9.
Trump’s threatened 50-percent tariff would have more than doubled the 20-percent tariff rate he originally announced on EU imports.
That across-the-board levy has been suspended to allow for talks.
But the EU remains subject to a 10-percent tariff that Trump imposed last month on imports from nearly every country around the world, along with 25-percent duties on cars, steel and aluminium.
The EU has previously suggested to the United States a bilateral tariff exemption for cars and other industrial goods, an offer so far dismissed by Washington.
Gill said the zero-for-zero proposal remained on the table.
“We believe that’s a very attractive starting point for a good negotiation that could lead to benefits on both sides of the Atlantic, and we will certainly be making that case forcefully, starting in the call between Commissioner Sefcovic and Secretary Lutnick,” Gill said.
Brussels is consulting with member states on plans to impose tariffs on US goods worth nearly 100 billion euros ($113 billion) if negotiations fail to produce a deal.
The US trade deficit in goods with the European Union was $236 billion in 2024.
But when taking account of services, where US firms are dominant, the European Commission calculates that the overall US trade deficit stood at $57 billion. – Agencies
