\n<\/p>\n
The EU and US are closing in on a high-level \u201cframework\u201d trade deal that would avert 50% tariffs on all exports from the bloc next Wednesday, Donald Trump\u2019s self-imposed deadline.<\/p>\n
Talks in Washington could go down to the wire, but diplomats and officials said the EU was willing to accept Trump\u2019s 10% blanket tariffs. Negotiators will only accept this, however, in exchange for an extension in talks and possible concessions on a 25% car tariff, which is hurting the German car industry, sources said.<\/p>\n
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, hinted a deal was possible after meeting the EU\u2019s trade chief, Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, on Thursday morning in Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see what we can do with the EU,\u201d he told reporters at a wider briefing on treasury matters, declaring on the eve of 4 July celebrations that the US was \u201cgoing to see a lot more trade deals\u201d.<\/p>\n
The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, are scheduled to continue talks with \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d on Thursday afternoon. EU ambassadors are expected to be briefed on the talks on Friday.<\/p>\n
Bessent said Greer would be \u201cworking diligently over the weekend\u201d with European officials.<\/p>\n
Trump has threatened to impose 50% tariffs on all EU goods from 9 July unless the two sides reach a deal. Most EU goods already face a 10% tariff, with levies of 25% on cars and car parts and 50% on steel and aluminium.<\/p>\n
The push for a narrowly focused UK-style agreement in principle comes days after the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, reiterated his calls for a quick deal. \u201cIt is better to achieve a quick and simple solution than a lengthy and complicated one that remains in the negotiation stage for months,\u201d he said in Berlin.<\/p>\n
Merz said a quick deal was needed \u201cto remove the burden of tariffs on our businesses, which are far too high\u201d, and that the current talks were \u201cnot about a minutely detailed trade deal\u201d but \u201cthe quick resolution of a tariff dispute\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d was seeking a standstill clause to provide \u201cguarantees that the US can stand over\u201d that there would be no imposition of new tariffs in any extension period, said one politician with knowledge of the talks.<\/p>\n
One EU diplomat said they expected a deal \u201cif not this week then before Wednesday\u201d, because it was \u201cin everybody\u2019s interest\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be very high level, but enough for Trump to declare victory,\u201d said one source. Some believe a deal could even be struck this week, giving the US president a significant announcement on 4 July Independence Day celebrations on Friday.<\/p>\n
Talks between the EU and the US have been taking place since early April when Trump imposed tariffs on 60-plus countries in a theatrical \u201cliberation day\u201d presentation. He has concluded a formal deal with only one of those countries, the UK, although he claims to have struck agreements with Vietnam and China.<\/p>\n
One source said the EU delegation that flew to Washington for talks in April was handed a \u201cmassive tome\u201d on US \u201cgrievances, country by country\u201d. \u201cThere were about 30 pages on the EU alone,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n
Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Sources in Berlin said Merz took some time to persuade the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to switch tack and pursue a UK-style approach.<\/p>\n Von der Leyen said on Thursday: \u201cIndeed, what we are aiming at is an agreement in principle, because [with] such a volume, in 90 days, an agreement in detail, it\u2019s impossible \u2026 That is also what the UK did. And as far as I\u2019m informed, there are only two countries so far worldwide that have concluded with an agreement in principle.\u201d<\/p>\n Others said Merz\u2019s frustration lay with the approach of a European institution used to dealing with 27 member states and the minute detail of regulation.<\/p>\n They also indicated that the US\u2019s latest proposal \u2013 sent to EU leaders last Wednesday \u2013 \u201cdid not include any details on \u2026 concessions from the US side\u201d.<\/p>\n In a briefing to EU ambassadors this week, von der Leyen\u2019s chief of staff, Bjoern Seibert, and the director general of the commission\u2019s trade department, Sabine Weyand, told member states the US wanted deals on four areas including tariffs.<\/p>\n The other three issues were strategically important sectors such as pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, economic purchases such as oil and gas, and non-trade barriers including tech, food and car regulation, all red lines for the EU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The EU and US are closing in on a high-level \u201cframework\u201d trade deal that would avert 50% tariffs on all exports from the bloc next Wednesday, Donald Trump\u2019s self-imposed deadline. Talks in Washington could go down to the wire, but diplomats and officials said the EU was willing to accept Trump\u2019s 10% blanket tariffs. Negotiators<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[2718,2717,696,715,2387,72,430,71,2719],"class_list":{"0":"post-9996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-avoid","9":"tag-closing","10":"tag-deal","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-framework","13":"tag-tariffs","14":"tag-trade","15":"tag-trumps","16":"tag-union"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}