The United States has offered an agreement to the European Union that would keep a 10 percent baseline tariff on all EU goods, with some exceptions for sensitive sectors such as aircraft and spirits, an EU diplomat and a national official told POLITICO.
The Trump administration had said on Sunday that it would push back a deadline for the return of its sweeping tariffs to Aug. 1. Tariffs would then revert to their April 2 rates for countries that fail to nail down new U.S. trade deals.
Stressing the sensitivity of those talks, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič debriefed with EU ambassadors and said the Commission was not expecting to receive one of those letters, two diplomats said.
The contours of a trade agreement are still very much a moving target, the diplomats stressed, with any deal subject to Trump’s blessing to move forward.
Washington gave no indications it would exempt politically sensitive industries such as cars, steel and aluminum or pharmaceuticals, as requested by the EU. France, Italy and Ireland would likely be pleased with exemptions on spirits and aircraft, however.
Irish Trade Minister Simon Harris, however, said in a statement Monday evening that “we can now expect an extension of the current status quo until August 1 to give further time for the EU and the U.S. to reach an agreement in principle.”
In the Monday evening meeting, which diplomats described as somber, Brussels noted that it hadn’t received any guarantees from the U.S. administration that there wouldn't be further U-turns on tariffs.
Posted by John3262005
3 Comments
I cant tell if this is TACO or not, but the fact that we are all treating the 10% as baseline is just depressing.
we’re offering deals? i thought the point was dong on the table
They’d be idiots to accept anything the US says at face value. If Trump wants a deal make him work for it, otherwise he’ll think they’re suckers and come back a month later for another 15%.