Trump
indicates ‘positive’ progress in US-EU trade talks
Wall Street
up in early trading after US president commends bloc for calling to ‘quickly
establish meeting dates’
Lisa
O'Carroll
Tue 27 May
2025 19.27 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/27/donald-trump-eu-dragging-heels-trade-tariff-deal-us
Donald Trump
has indicated there has been progress in US trade talks with the EU, helping
send share prices rising on Wall Street, after he commended the bloc for
calling to “quickly establish meeting dates”.
“I have just
been informed that the EU has called to quickly establish meeting dates. This
is a positive event, and I hope that they will,” Trump wrote on his Truth
Social platform on Tuesday, saying the EU would be “very happy and successful”
if it agreed a deal.
However, the
president also repeated criticism of Brussels’ negotiators and defended his
decision on Friday to threaten a 50% tariff on EU imports from 1 June, which he
postponed two days later until 9 July.
“I was
extremely satisfied with the 50% tariff allotment on the European Union,
especially since they were slow walking (to put it mildly!), our negotiations
with them,” he wrote.
In what
appeared to be another veiled threat on potential further tariffs, he added
that he was empowered to “set a deal” if the US was “unable to make a deal” or
was “treated unfairly”.
Nevertheless,
the president’s comments and his weekend U-turn on 50% border taxes helped lift
US markets, which had been closed on Monday. The S&P 500 rose 2%, while the
Dow Jones added 1.7% and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite was up by 2.4%.
Brussels
sources said the way had now been cleared for detailed negotiations, with an
expectation that the EU commissioner for trade, Maroš Šefčovič, would meet the
US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, on the sidelines of the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development meeting in Paris on Tuesday next
week.
A team of
officials are also expected in Washington in the coming days for technical
talks. However, sources said the EU’s approach had not changed, with the target
being a deal in which both sides move to zero tariffs on industrial goods, and
the EU buys more soya beans, arms and liquefied natural gas.
Trump’s
latest comments came as Emmanuel Macron warned Vietnamese students about the
consequences of impulsive superpowers in a swipe at Trump’s chaotic tariff
policies.
During a
six-day south-east Asian tour, the French president said that “on the impulse
of a superpower, everything can change”. On Trump’s policies in the US, he said
tariffs were being imposed “according to the side of the bed on which he woke
up”.
After the
weekend’s tariff flip-flopping, there is evidence that EU policymakers are
scrambling to get a handle on the scale of European direct investment in the US
with requests going out to industry leaders to share their investment plans.
Members of
the Confederation of European Business, also known as BusinessEurope, an
alliance of 42 federations across the region, received a survey from the
European Commission on Monday. It asked for information on upcoming US
investments, with the instruction to respond as soon as possible, one source
said.
A similar
note seeking information on investment plans for the next five years was sent
to the 59-person European Round Table for Industry, which represents industry
and the tech sector. The petition for information came with a note saying the
request had came personally from the European Commission president, Ursula von
der Leyen.
The round
table’s members include the CEOs of companies including the chip equipment
maker ASML, the German chemicals group BASF and the software company SAP, as
well as the carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
A headline
figure on EU investment plans could prove critical in negotiations. Last month,
Trump touted investments from US companies including the chip maker Nvidia and
the pharma giant Johnson & Johnson – both of which have a large presence in
Europe – as evidence that his tariff strategy was paying off with the
repatriation of jobs to the US.
European and
Asian stock markets also rose on Tuesday as investors continued to react
positively to Trump’s decision to backtrack on Friday’s tariff threat.
Naeem Aslam,
the chief investment officer at London’s Zaye Capital Markets, told CNBC that
the tariffs delay had sparked a “tentative risk-on rally”.
“Looking
ahead, the EU-US trade dance is a high-stakes tango, with July 9 as the next
flashpoint,” he said. The EU was dangling phased tariff cuts and “mutual
respect” talks, but he warned businesses to “buckle up; this ride’s far from
over”.
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