European officers are working towards the clock to safe a commerce take care of Washington earlier than early July, when so-called “reciprocal” tariffs will kick in on EU items despatched to the US.
“We completely are dedicated to discovering agreements with the US that profit each side,” European Fee spokesperson Olof Gill stated, noting that “there was no formal provide to the US of something at current”.
The EU is at present dealing with the prospect of a 20% tariff on the products it sends to the US, a coverage concocted by the White Home to rebalance its $235.6 billion (€208.2bn) commerce deficit with the bloc. That complete, from 2024, seems at items and never providers.
Whereas the deficit is partially linked to the energy of the US financial system and the greenback, Trump views the imbalance as exploitation. In response to market panic, the US president introduced a 90-day pause on his tariff plans in early April, though he left a ten% baseline levy in place. In response, Brussels paused retaliatory tariffs on €21bn of US items till 14 July.
The Fee’s feedback on Friday got here in response to a report within the Monetary Occasions that instructed Brussels needs to extend its purchases of US items by €50bn to scale back its commerce deficit with the US.
In line with FT journalists, who interviewed EU Commerce Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, Brussels is seeking to improve its purchases of LNG from the US, in addition to agricultural merchandise like soybeans.
“That is solely per what the European Fee has been saying since President Trump gained the election,” Gill stated on Friday.
“There are areas the place we imagine we will probably improve our imports from the US, and that will even have the extra advantage of decreasing … the buying and selling items surplus that we take pleasure in and which appears to be such a fixation on the opposite facet of the Atlantic.”
Šefčovič additionally informed the FT that Brussels wouldn’t settle for a state of affairs the place the ten% baseline tariff on EU items stays in place.
Requested in regards to the feedback on Friday, the fee didn’t reply immediately. Gill as an alternative pressured that tariffs are a lose-lose coverage instrument and talked up Brussels’ “zero for zero” buying and selling proposition. The EU has instructed a deal during which no tariffs could be collected on sure items when buying and selling with the US.
In negotiations with Washington, Brussels can also be emphasising service commerce — usually forgotten in public declarations from the White Home. In 2023, the EU exported €319bn of providers to the US, whereas importing €427bn.