European Union Commerce Commissioner Maros Sefcovic met with the leading commercial authorities of US President Donald Trump on Tuesday to try to avoid high EU product tariffs next week, but negotiation results were not clear.
Sefcovic said he maintained “substantive conversations” with the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, US commerce representative Jamieson Greer and White House’s main economic advisor Kevin Hassett.
Two previous discussions with US authorities had not yet changed Trump plans to increase US import rates to correspond to rates charged by major business partners and counteract their non-tariff trade barriers.
“The hard work continues. EU priority is a fair and balanced agreement rather than unjustified tariffs,” Sefcovic said in an X post. “We share the goal of strengthening the industry on both sides.”
A Greer spokesman did not respond to a request for commentary on the discussions.
Meetings take place at the time some countries are preparing tariff concessions before Trump’s announcement on April 2 of the reciprocal tariff plan, a day he dubbed “liberation day” to the US economy of unjust business practices.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that India is willing to reduce tariffs by more than half of US imports, valued at $ 23 billion in the first phase. According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), India is among the highest weighted average trade tariffs with 12.1% compared to the 2.5% of the US.
A US delegation led by Assistant Commerce Representative Brendan Lynch is in New Delhi this week for commercial negotiations with Indian authorities from Tuesday to Saturday, the US Embassy in New Delhi said.
Last Monday (24), Trump said he could give “many countries” discounts on tariffs, but did not provide details. Trump also said that separate car rates, pharmaceutical products and aluminum were coming to “a very close future.”
EU authorities have been struggling to convince Trump not to enter a trade war, as he is embarking on a multifaceted tariff offensive that is expected to attract strong retaliation measures.
SEFCOVIC said last week that little progress was done in the negotiations with Washington after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this month.
