EU Working to Finalize Trade Agreement With US This Month, Says Bloc’s Trade Chief

Trump said he planned to publish more tariff letters on July 9.

EU Commissioner-designate Maros Sefcovic attends his confirmation hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels on Nov. 4, 2024. Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images

The European Union is working to finalize a framework trade agreement with the United States in July as a deadline looms for the reinstatement of tariffs on European goods, the bloc’s trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, said on July 9.

Sefcovic told the European Parliament that talks with the United States had intensified considerably since May. He also said negotiators representing the European Union and the United States have made good progress toward crafting a joint statement that would presage a formal trade agreement.

A deal could be finalized “potentially even in the next couple of days,” Sefcovic said during the July 9 session of Parliament in Strasbourg, France. He emphasized that the European Union’s regulatory framework remains non-negotiable.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz echoed Sefcovic’s comments in the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany’s Legislature, on July 9.

Merz said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the prospect of a deal. He also said that the European Union’s objective is to reach an agreement as quickly as possible with the lowest possible tariffs.

On July 7, the U.S. government pushed back a deadline for trading partners to reach new agreements on tariffs to Aug. 1. That extended the deadline by three weeks from the initial early July target President Donald Trump set after dialing back a tariff schedule he initially announced in early April.

Despite the extension, the U.S. government has begun sending letters to countries outlining tariff rates that are now set to take effect on Aug. 1.

On July 7, Trump sent 14 tariff letters to trading partners imposing levies of 25 percent and higher, according to a White House fact sheet.

Tariff rates outlined in the fact sheet include 25 percent for South Korea, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, and Tunisia; 30 percent for South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina; 32 percent for Indonesia; 35 percent for Bangladesh and Serbia; 36 percent for Cambodia and Thailand; and 40 percent for Laos and Burma (also known as Myanmar).

Trump said in a social media post on July 8 that further trade announcements would be made on July 9.

“We will be releasing a minimum of 7 Countries having to do with trade, tomorrow morning, with an additional number of Countries being released in the afternoon,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

As of the afternoon of July 9, new letters addressed to Algeria, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka have been published. Those letters set the tariff rate for the Philippines at 20 percent, Brunei and Moldova at 25 percent, and the remaining four countries at 30 percent.

During a July 8 Cabinet meeting, Trump acknowledged improved communications with the European Union. He said the 27-member trading bloc “treated us very badly until recently” but is now “treating us very nicely.”

In an interview with CNBC that aired on July 8, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the EU has made “significant, real offers” to open markets to U.S. agricultural and other products.

“We’re going to take down our barriers, we’re going to open our markets to American farmers, ranchers, fishermen, really open their markets, and let Americans, finally American entrepreneurial spirit finally get to sell to Europe,” Lutnick told CNBC. “The president’s got those deals on his desk and he’s thinking about how he wants to play them. And this is very tricky, because they have a huge trade deficit.”

So far, the United States has announced that it has reached trade deals with the United Kingdom and Vietnam, as well as a framework agreement with China.

Lutnick said that he and other key members of the Cabinet would be meeting with representatives of the Chinese communist regime.

“I think we’re going to meet in early August and we’re going to start kicking off a bigger trade conversation between the two largest economies in the world, China and the United States of America,” Lutnick said.

“So that’s going to be kicked off in early August with myself, Secretary Bessent and Ambassador Greer. I think that’s going to take some time. But at least we’re beginning the process of having a bigger conversation.”