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EU trade negotiator says calls with US officials were 'good' after Trump extends tariff deadline

Published: 27 May. 2025, 08:55

EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic addresses the media as he arrives for an EU Foreign Affairs Council of trade ministers at the Europa building in Brussels on May 15. [AFP/YONHAP]

The European Union's chief trade negotiator said Monday he had “good calls” with Trump administration officials and the EU was “fully committed” to reaching a trade deal by a July 9 deadline, after Trump agreed to delay his threatened 50 percent tariff — or import tax — on European goods.

Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on X that the EU's executive commission was pushing “at pace” toward an EU-U.S. deal and the two sides were in constant contact.

Sefcovic's calls with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer came a day after Trump said he would delay implementation of the 50 percent tariff from June 1 until July 9 to buy time for negotiations with the 27-country EU.

That announcement came after Trump's call with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who told Trump that she “wants to get down to serious negotiations,” according to the U.S. president on Sunday.

In a social media post Friday, Trump had threatened to impose the 50 percent tariff on EU goods, asserting that the bloc had been “very difficult to deal with” on trade and that negotiations were “going nowhere.”

The stakes are high given the size of the U.S.-EU trading relationship. Although the trade partners don't have a free trade agreement like the one the United States has with Mexico and Canada, some $1.8 trillion in goods and services cross the Atlantic in both directions each year.

EU Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho told a news conference that von der Leyen and Trump agreed to “fast-track” the negotiations. The result of the call means that “there is a new impetus for these negotiations, and we will take it from there, from our side, we always said we were ready to make a deal.”

The EU has offered Trump a “zero for zero” deal in which tariffs would be removed on industrial goods including automobiles, but the U.S. administration has said it will not lower tariffs below a 10 percent baseline imposed on almost all its trading partners. Trump has also announced tariffs of 25 percent on steel and automobiles.

AP