The EU and the US clinched a long-awaited trade deal on Sunday, averting the imposition of a 30% US blanket tariff next month that threatened to upend the €1.7 trillion transatlantic trade relationship.
The agreement came after a face-to-face meeting between European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump in Scotland.
The news caps months of increasingly frantic efforts by EU leaders to negotiate down Trump’s sweeping levies, which have transformed global supply chains and exacerbated Europe’s deepening economic malaise.
Trump has imposed a 50% tariff on steel and aluminium, a 25% duty on cars and car parts, and a 10% blanket levy on most other EU exports that affect around €370 billion worth of EU goods, or 70% of the bloc’s exports to the US.
The duties come on top of the 4.8% average rate faced by EU exporters prior to Trump’s return to the White House in January.
Over the past week EU capitals have become increasingly hopeful that Brussels could strike deal similar to the one Washington signed off on last week with Japan, which left a 15% blanket levy in place for cars and most other goods, although not for steel and aluminium.
EU exporters will face a 15% blanket tariff, Trump said following the meeting – down from the current 10% levy.
Brussels will also purchase $750 billion worth of US energy and invest $600 billion into America “over and above” what it has already promised, he said. The bloc will also buy “vast amount of [American] military equipment”, he added.
Trump also said the EU will “open up” its markets to allow US exports to enter the bloc at a “zero tariff” rate.
This is a developing story and the text has been updated.
(jp)