The European Union’s Commissioner for Trade Maroš Šefčovič is flying to Washington today for talks with senior Trump administration officials ahead of next week’s deadline for a trade agreement that would be needed to avoid 50% tariffs placed on EU exports to the United States.
On 2 April, US President Donald Trump imposed large, across-the-board tariffs on a large swathe of global trading partners, including the EU.
After markets tanked, Mr Trump paused those tariffs for 90 days, although he did leave intact a 10% baseline tariff on EU goods.
Since then, EU and US officials and technical experts have been locked in negotiations to reach a framework trade agreement by next Wednesday to avoid tariffs being hiked to 50%, a move that would prompt the EU to hit back with tariffs on €95 billion of US goods.
Bloomberg has reported that the EU could accept a baseline 10% tariff on some goods, so long as there were reduced rates on key sectors, such as aviation, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.
Mr Šefčovič and his team will meet the US trade secretary Jamieson Greer and Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick over the next two days and then report back to member states on Friday.
Officials are also pressing for a series of exemptions and quotas that would further blunt the impact of the 10% baseline.
The EU insists its regulation of the tech sector, which mostly impacts US tech giants, is not up for negotiation. It is understood the EU’s own drive for simplification of rules is being offered as a concession, as well as plans to increase purchases of LNG and AI technology.
Article Source – EU meeting with Trump administration to avoid 50% tariffs
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