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Donald Trump has agreed to delay his threatened 50 per cent tariffs on the EU and extend trade negotiations until July 9, after a conversation on Sunday with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Trump told reporters that von der Leyen had asked for an extension, two days after the US president said he would impose the steep tariffs on EU imports from June 1 in response to what he said were unsatisfactory negotiations with Brussels.
“She said she wants to get down to serious negotiation,” Trump told reporters. “We had a very nice call . . . and I agreed to move [the date].”
“She said we will rapidly get together and see if we can work something out.”
Von der Leyen earlier said in a social media post that she had a “good call” with the US president and that the EU was ready to advance trade talks “swiftly and decisively” but needed Trump to return to his original 90-day negotiation period.
“To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9,” von der Leyen said in a post on social media.
It was the first publicly disclosed call between the two leaders since Trump’s inauguration. Von der Leyen’s office confirmed she had initiated the contact.
Trump’s threat of 50 per cent tariffs, made on Friday, represented a big escalation in the simmering transatlantic trade war, and startled European negotiators. The US president had paused his initial imposition of 20 per cent tariffs against the EU in April, to begin a 90-day negotiation that was set to end on July 9.
The euro strengthened 0.4 per cent against the dollar on Monday, while European stock futures rose. Contracts tracking the Stoxx 50 were up 1.7 per cent, while those for Germany’s Dax index were up 1.6 per cent.
Von der Leyen’s statement suggested a possible shift in the commission’s stance towards finding a compromise. On Friday, von der Leyen’s chief trade negotiator Maroš Šefčovič called for “mutual respect, not threats” and said Brussels would “defend our interests” in response to Trump’s escalation.
After Trump had threatened to impose the 50 per cent tariffs later on Friday, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent had said on Fox News: “I would hope that this would light a fire under the EU”.
A White House official said on Sunday before Trump’s announcement that they were frustrated the EU had not engaged like other countries. “We just haven’t seen anything material come out of the EU,” said a White House official.
Stephen Moore, an outside economic adviser to Trump, said that von der Leyen’s statement was “a promising sign” that the EU was “ready to negotiate”.
“It may not be as rapidly as Trump would like to see, but I think this is a peace offering,” Moore told the Financial Times.
Officials on both sides have acknowledged the lack of progress in the EU-US talks, as negotiators stick to long-held positions. Trump has attacked the EU for what he alleges are unfair trade practices, while EU officials say the US refuses to take into account its huge services surplus with the bloc.
In case Trump follows through on his threat, the EU has prepared a €21bn package of tariffs on US items such as maize, wheat, motorcycles and clothing, and is also discussing an additional list worth €95bn of other targets including Boeing aircraft, cars and bourbon whiskey.
Additional reporting by Arjun Neil Alim in Hong Kong