Trump Amps Up Tariff Pressure, and EU Scrambles to Secure a Deal

European officials told member state ambassadors on Friday that they expect the Trump administration to divide its trading partners into three different categories next week based on their progress in negotiations, the people said.

Countries that have reached an agreement in principle with the U.S. would remain subject to the administration’s 10% baseline tariffs in the near term with the possibility of a reduction later on.

Trading partners that are close to an agreement would see their baseline tariff jump to the country-specific level that was announced earlier this year until a final agreement is reached, the people said.

If the Trump administration believes negotiations with a country are going badly, tariffs would return indefinitely to a higher level.

The Trump administration has said it is giving priority to talks with a core group of trading partners, for whom the July 9 deadline might be flexible, but that the U.S. doesn’t have the capacity to negotiate in detail with every global counterpart. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said the U.S. “could have trade wrapped up by Labor Day” and is focused on deals with 18 key trading partners.

However, when asked in a gathering with the media on Thursday about other agreements, Trump said: “We have a couple of other deals, but you know, my inclination is to send a letter out and say what tariffs they are going to be paying.”

A spokesman for the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, said on Friday that the EU wants a negotiated solution with the U.S. and made progress toward an agreement in principle during its last round of negotiations in Washington before July Fourth.

After discussing the state of trade talks with EU member states, the commission will re-engage with the U.S. on the substance of a potential deal over the weekend, the spokesman said.

“At the same time, we are preparing for the possibility that no satisfactory agreement is reached,” he said. The EU has prepared countertariffs against the U.S.

The terms of the deal that is being discussed could meet with resistance from member EU states if they favor the U.S. too much.

One national official in Europe described the draft as “a take-it or leave-it offer” from the U.S. but said the details were fuzzy and could still evolve as negotiators continue to talk over the weekend.

The national official said certain product categories could be exempt from tariffs. For example, both sides agreed that European car manufacturers would be allowed to export one vehicle tariff-free for each vehicle they produced in their U.S. plants for export back to Europe, the official said—a provision that would benefit only certain manufacturers, such as Germany’s BMW.

Under the draft, the EU would have to lift legal restrictions on the import of U.S. meat, except chlorine-washed chicken, the official added. Such a change could be controversial for certain European countries with large agricultural sectors, such as France.

The U.S. wants the EU to accept a 17% tariff on some of its agricultural products as part of a deal, people familiar with the talks said, although an EU diplomat said it wasn’t clear that the U.S. would insist on that point. The Financial Times earlier reported on the agricultural tariff demand.

EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič met with U.S. officials on Thursday. Both Šefčovič and Bessent suggested​ after their meetings that more work ​w​as still needed.

Write to Kim Mackrael at kim.mackrael@wsj.com, Bertrand Benoit at bertrand.benoit@wsj.com and Ed Ballard at ed.ballard@wsj.com