EU
president secures tariffs delay after talk with Trump
Enactment of
50% tariffs postponed until July so both sides can ‘reach a good deal’ after
pressure from European leaders
Staff and
agencies
Mon 26 May
2025 03.14 CEST
Donald Trump
has announced that he will pause his threatened 50% tariffs on the European
Union until 9 July, after a “very nice call” with EU chief Ursula von der
Leyen.
The European
Commission president announced in a social media post that she had spoken with
Trump and secured the delay to give the two sides more time to negotiate.
“Europe is
ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” von der Leyen wrote. “To reach
a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”
Brussels and
Washington have been locked in negotiations in a bid to avert an all-out
transatlantic trade war, after Trump’s tariff threat on Friday dramatically
raised the stakes.
Trump warned
he would impose 50% tariffs on all of the the bloc’s imports into the US,
saying “discussions with them are going nowhere”, adding that the tariffs would
be applied from 1 June. Trump claimed he was “not looking for a deal”,
repeating his longstanding view that European states had “banded together to
take advantage of us”.
German
finance minister Lars Klingbeil on Sunday said he had spoken with his US
counterpart Scott Bessent about the matter.
“We don’t
need any further provocations, but serious negotiations,” he told the Bild
newspaper, adding “the US tariffs endanger the US economy just as much as the
German and European economy”.
If imposed,
the increase would dramatically raise Washington’s current tariff baseline levy
of 10% to 50%, and fuel simmering tensions between two of the world’s economic
heavyweights. Trump had previously paused threatened tariff hikes for three
months to allow time for negotiations, giving trading partners until July to
agree to new terms.
The latest
threat of a June hike sent stock markets into a tailspin on Friday, amid fears
of renewed global economic disruption, with the US dollar also falling in
value.
The EU is
one of Washington’s largest trading partners, sending more than $600bn (£444bn)
in goods last year and buying $370bn worth, according to US government figures.
Klingbeil
reiterated Germany’s support for the EU in handling the talks with the US. “We
as Europeans are united and determined to represent our interests,” he said.
The EU’s
trade chief, Maroš Šefčovič, responded on Friday saying that the bloc was
“committed to securing a deal that works for both” and that trade relations
“must be guided by mutual respect, not threats”.
The Irish
premier, Micheál Martin, warned of the consequences if such levels of tariffs
were imposed. “This is a surprise, because there was a pause until early July,”
he told RTÉ.
“Everybody
in the European Union is acting in good faith and wants a negotiated settlement
with the United States.
“The trading
relationship between the European Union and the United States is the most
dynamic and largest in the world, so tariffs of that height or scale would be
extremely disruptive and would create even wider disruption across the global
economy.”
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