Von der Leyen urges Trump to respect trade negotiation deadlines
US President Donald Trump's threats to impose 50% tariffs on the European Union have prompted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to speak directly with the US president by phone. According to her own statement on social media, the EU leader has asked Trump to respect the negotiation deadlines they established after pausing trade retaliation in early April.
"Good call," the German said, noting that the US and the EU maintain the "most important and close trade relationship in the world." "Europe is ready to move forward with the talks quickly and decisively. To reach a good agreement, we would need until July 9," she continued, after what was the first bilateral telephone conversation of the Republican's second term.
"Europe is ready to move forward with the talks quickly and decisively," the German said.Trump's outburst on Friday, when in one of his posts on his own social media platform the US president recommended that tariffs with the EU be 50% starting June 1, took Brussels by surprise because it came just a week after the person in charge of the negotiations, Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, agreed with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to intensify technical talks to reach a trade agreement as soon as possible.
After Trump backtracked in early April and placed a 90-day freeze on his "reciprocal" tariffs, which he had announced on what he called "Liberation Day," the EU decided to use this opportunity to negotiate and also pause its first package of trade retaliation measures, despite Washington maintaining 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum, and cars and a general 10% tariff on other European products.
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But Trump seems to have grown weary of the negotiations, and on Friday threatened higher tariffs starting in June to pressure the EU into reaching an agreement. "The EU is very difficult to negotiate with," he wrote on his social media platform, which is the official means of communicating his executive initiatives. "Our discussions with them are going nowhere," he insisted.
That same Friday, Sefcovic had a call scheduled with his counterparts across the Atlantic, and he used the meeting to seek clarification. Through his X account, Sefcovic implied that, although the positions did not seem close, there was a willingness on both sides to reach an agreement given the stakes. “The EU is fully committed to an agreement that benefits both parties. Trade between Europe and the United States is unparalleled and should be guided by mutual respect, not threats. We are prepared to defend our interests,” said the commissioner, trying to keep up with Trump in the face of his latest threat.
“Europe is not going to wrinkle,” warns Vice President Teresa RiberaThis all comes after Washington sent Brussels a list of demands last week to reduce the deficit, including so-called non-tariff barriers, such as adopting US food safety standards and eliminating domestic taxes on digital services, according to people familiar with the matter. The EU has responded with concrete offers. These include zero tariffs on industrial goods, buying more liquefied natural gas—which Europe needs to wean itself off Russian gas—and soybeans, and also cooperating on issues such as excess steel capacity, which both sides blame on China. The call, before the storm unleashed by Trump, was intended to address all of these issues.
"We are witnessing a spectacle with very few precedents in our times: the aggressive desire of the US federal administration to impose its conditions, its interests, as if the rest of us were going to give in," said Teresa Ribera, the Commission's Executive Vice President for Trade and Ecological Transition, this Saturday. "Europe will not give in," she warned, "it will not allow conditions to be imposed that run counter to the interests of European businesses and society."
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