The European Union on Sunday sought to lower tensions with the White House over trade, with the body’s executive announcing a positive call with President Trump just says after he threatened a 50 percent tariff on Europe’s imports to the United States.
“Good call with @POTUS,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a post on the social platform X.
“The EU and US share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship. Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively. To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9,” she stated.
Trump expressed frustration with Europe’s negotiators on Friday in threatening a 50 percent tariff, which would have more than doubled an earlier 20 percent tariff he had discussed imposing on imports from the EU nations.
“The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with,” he wrote. “Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable.”
Trump indicated those tariffs could be imposed by June 1, leaving little time for talks. The July 9 date mentioned by von der Leyen is the deadline for countries around the world to get trade deals with the United States that would prevent the “Liberation Day” tariffs Trump paused from going into effect.
Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent later on Friday said the threat was meant to light a fire under the EU.
“I believe the president believes that the EU proposals have not been of the same quality that we’ve seen from our other important trading partners,” Bessent said on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”
“I’m not going to negotiate on TV, but I would hope that this would light a fire under the EU,” he added.
The White House has reached precious few trade deals with countries on the “Liberation Day” tariffs. The only announced trade deal so far is one with Great Britain.
Trump meanwhile has paused a number of tariffs, which initially had caused stock markets in the U.S. to plummet while triggering fears of a recession. His steps away from a trade war included dramatically lowering tariffs that had been imposed on China’s imports.
Markets bounced back, seemingly in response to those moves, though they ended with down days last week amid fears about new tariffs from Trump and increased U.S. debt.
