The European Union and US made scant progress bridging trade differences this week as officials from President Donald Trump’s administration indicated that the bulk of the US tariffs imposed on the bloc will not be removed.
The EU’s trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, left the meeting with little clarity on the US stance, struggling to determine the American side’s aims, according to people familiar with the discussions. He met for about two hours with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington Monday.
The US officials indicated that the 20% “reciprocal” tariffs — which have been reduced to 10% for 90 days — as well as other tariffs targeting sectors including cars and metals would not be removed outright, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The EU agreed last week to delay for 90 days the implementation of a set of counter-tariffs against the US over 25% duties Trump imposed on the bloc’s steel and aluminum exports. The move came after the US president lowered his so-called reciprocal rate on most EU exports for the same amount of time.
The EU has said that its measures, which target around €21 billion of US goods, will snap into place after the 90 days if negotiations don’t yield satisfactory results. The bloc is already working to prepare more counter-measures in the event of that scenario materializing. In parallel, it is rushing to conclude trade deals with countries around the world and improve the functioning of its single market.
While US officials have suggested that the sectoral measures had to stay, some of the tariffs on cars could be offset by increasing investments, production and exports from the US, the people said. They speculated, however, that there was no stopping the levies from getting increased in the future should US exports not get a boost.
The EU has offered that both sides remove all tariffs on industrial goods, including cars. The US has so far rejected that proposal.
Posted by John3262005
4 Comments
chat was this priced in
So, is the EU just going to eat the 10% tariffs indefinitely while Trump waffles back and forth? Also, does anyone know how much Ireland is tariffed? They are both UK and EU, so they pay both? Does anyone know what’s happening anymore?
>The EU’s trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, left the meeting with little clarity on the US stance, struggling to determine the American side’s aims, according to people familiar with the discussions.
“America, what do you want?”
“We don’t want to be treated unfairly in global markets. We’re tired of being ripped off. Your tariffs are hurting us.”
“Ok, we can lower or remove our tariffs. How about a trade deal?”
“No, we want to bring manufacturing back. Things need to be made in America again. How come you’re not listening to us? We’re going to tariff you even harder now for the lack of respect you’ve shown the USA.”
https://preview.redd.it/x4v5h2evb1ve1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e3f4234aad0576ddbf111dc791782bdd70e1d1f4