Customs duties: in the final stretch, Europeans ready to soften their positions to reach an agreement with the United States

"It's a moving target," a European diplomat confided a few days ago, referring to the objective pursued by the European Union (EU) in its trade negotiations with the United States. Until then, however, one thing seemed certain: the July 9 deadline by which Washington promised to increase its customs duties if no agreement was reached with Brussels. But this weekend, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent finally postponed it to August ¹ , giving more time to the Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of the Twenty-seven.

"We are working towards an agreement in principle with the United States by July 9," Olof Gill, one of its spokespersons, insisted on Monday, July 7, who also reported "progress" in the ongoing discussions between the two sides of the Atlantic. "We are at the beginning of the end of the battle," he continued.

Moreover, Ursula von der Leyen and Donald Trump, who do not have a very close relationship, spoke on the phone on July 6. "They had a good exchange," the Commission assures. In recent days, the Commission President has also increased her contacts with European heads of state and government, starting with the French Emmanuel Macron and the German Friedrich Merz, which suggests that she believes she is in the final stretch.

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