The European Commission is preparing minds for a trade deal with the US which sees tariffs maintained on EU goods.
“With these tariffs the US thinks it has evened the playing field,” EU official Matthias Jørgensen told MEPs at the European Parliament on Thursday, “It’s very possible that we do not get rid of all the tariffs, then we might have to rebalance on our side.”
Since mid-March, the Trump administration has imposed 25% tariffs on EU steel and aluminium, 25% on EU cars and 10% on all EU imports.
“It is clear from our discussions with the Commission that it will be difficult to go below 10% US tariffs,” a European diplomat told Euronews as the 27 EU trade ministers met on Thursday.
“We would have a very hard time in the council with 10% tariffs,” Michal Baranowski, Polish economic undersecretary of state, predicted.
A member state’s official said France and Germany will be least happy with such an outcome while Hungary, Ireland, Italy would be less concerned.
After several weeks of deadlock in the trade negotiations, some movement is now evident.
“What is encouraging is that we are engaging actively both at expert and political levels,” EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said, adding that he’d had a “constructive” call with US trade secretary Howard Lutnick on Wednesday, and that both agreed to intensify the talks at technical level.
Sefcovic has already travelled three times to the US to meet counterparts. He seemed hopeful on Thursday that a meeting with Ambassador Jamieson Greer, the trade US representative, could take place soon in Brussels or on the sidelines of an upcoming OECD meeting.
The EU has put on the table the possibility of facilitating imports of US liquefied natural gas, AI technology and soybeans, and zero-to-zero tariffs on all industrial goods. Jørgensen told the MEPs that there was also room to “strengthen transatlantic investments”, but ruled out negotiation on non-tariff barriers such as EU legislation.
“We will be flexible. But it is quite clear: each side needs to continue to respect each other’s regulatory autonomy,” the official said, adding: “EU legislation is not on the table.”
If the EU doesn’t manage to return to the status quo ante, the €95 billion list of retaliation presented by the Commission last week could be deployed to rebalance the situation.
“Letting the current unbalance persist indefinitely is not an option,” Sefcovic said, as US tariffs now cover 70% of EU exports to the other side of the Atlantic.
Lobbying is under way over which US products should be listed – currently open to consultation by industries and member states.
France, Italy and Spain are vying to keep Bourbon Whiskey off the list to protect their wine and spirits from further US retaliation, as they successfully managed in the previous retaliation package which was suspended when US president Donald Trump announced a 90-Day pause in the trade war.
The aircraft sector is also a concern for some member states, since the US launched an investigation after the EU included Boeing in its new retaliation package. EU champion Airbus is likely to come into the crosshairs of the US.
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