The negotiators of the European Union and the United States are directed to another week of intense conversations, while seeking to reach a commercial agreement before August 1, when the US president, Donald Trump, He has threatened to impose 30% tariffs on most EU exports.
Officials in Brussels are willing to accept an unbalanced agreement that favors the United States If that is what is required to break the impasse before the deadline. However, both parties have not yet achieved decisive advance despite a previous negotiations in Washington last week, according to people familiar with the matter.
Therefore, The EU is also intensifying preparations to retaliate in case of not reaching an agreement. EU envoys will meet this week to formulate a measures plan before a possible Brexit without agreement with Trump, whose negotiating position on tariffs has hardened before the deadline.
“These negotiations are difficult,” said French finance minister, Éric Lombard, before a meeting with business federations in Paris. “If we do not reach a balanced agreement with the United States, we reserve the right to take balanced countermeasures, of course, but aimed at defending the interests of the European Union.”
Now the United States is seen by pressing to apply an almost universal tariff on EU goods greater than 10%, With less and fewer exemptions limited to aviation, some medical devices and generic medicines, several alcoholic beverages and a specific set of manufacturing equipment that the United States needs, people said, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
A spokesman for the European Commission, who deals with the commercial affairs of the blockHe said they had no comments to make about the ongoing negotiations.
Both parties have also discussed a possible limit for some sectors, as well as quotas for steel and aluminum, and a way of isolating the supply chains of sources that exceed metals, according to the sources. The sources warned that, even if an agreement was reached, this would require Trump’s approval, whose position is not clear.
“I trust that we will reach an agreement,” the US Secretary of Commerce said on Sunday, Howard Lutnick, in the Face the Nation of CBS. “I think that all these key countries will understand that it is better to open their markets to the United States than to pay a significant tariff.”
Lutnick added that he had talked to European commercial negotiators on early Sunday.
Trump’s letter
The president of the United States wrote to the EU at the beginning of the month, warning that the block would face a 30% tariff on most of its exports from August 1. In addition to a universal tax, Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on cars and auto parts, and double steel and aluminum. He has also threatened to impose new tariffs on pharmaceutical and semiconductor products from next month, and recently announced a 50% tariff on copper. In total, the EU estimates that US tariffs already cover 380,000 million euros (US $ 442,000 million), or approximately 70 %, of its exports to the United States.
“We have to end this uncertainty,” Siemens Ag, Roland Busch executive director, in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. “Once there is an agreement, the agreement must be the agreement, and then we can re -invest capital based on the facts, how tariffs are seen, and hopefully they are not too high or too extreme, because that would harm the economies.”
Before Trump’s letter, The EU was hoping to be advancing towards an initial frame that would allow detailed discussions on the basis of a universal rate of 10% For many of the block exports.
The EU has been looking for broader exemptions than those offered by the US In addition to protecting the block of future sectoral tariffs. Although any agreement has been accepted for a long time, it would be asymmetric in favor of the US, the EU will evaluate the general imbalance of any agreement before deciding whether to apply rebalancing measures, Bloomberg previously reported. The level of suffering that member states are willing to accept varies, and some are open to higher tariffs if sufficient exemptions are achieved, according to sources.
The Stellantis NV car manufacturer recorded on Monday a surprising loss of 2,300 million euros in the first semester which included an impact of 300 million euros due to American tariffs.
