The to avoid a transatlantic is finally fixed black on white. But there are still gray that demonstrate mutual distrust, even almost a month after the political agreement closed in Scotland between the president of the United States, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The most significant sample is the clause on cars, a crucial sector for Europe and that forces Brussels to accelerate the entire process to demonstrate its commitment to the agreement imposed by Washington.
The joint statement now signed says that the 15% top agreed for most European products sold on the other side of the Atlantic, including but cars and their pieces will only benefit, will only benefit when the EU demonstrates, with facts, which will comply with what is promised.
Washington conditions the reduction to Europe formally introducing legislation to eliminate its taxes on all industrial products – including US vehicles – and grant preferential access to a range of agricultural products, including pork, bison, dairy and seafood types. Meanwhile, the current 27.5% tariff will be maintained, with the “commitment to apply 15% of the cap to cars and car parts” from the first day that the EU “formally present the necessary legislative process” to implement the tariff agreement.
According to a high position of the White House that spoke under the condition of anonymity, the 27.5% tariff to European vehicles remains for now to make sure the EU “undertakes its part.” “As soon as they can introduce that legislation (…), I really introduce it, we can contribute that reduction. Both parties are very interested in moving fast,” he said the high position.
From Brussels, the European Commissioner of Commerce, Maros Sefcovic, has assured that Brussels’s “firm intention” is to launch that process “this month.” If the dates are fulfilled, he said at a press conference, he has the word of the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, that then the new tariffs “will be applied retroactively since August 1”.
The conditionality in the section on vehicles “is just an example of the ambiguity of the agreement, which leaves space for both interpretation and possible climbing,” the Financial Institution is noticeable in an analysis ING.
Less luck have still had sectors such as wine or spirits, who have not managed to enter the umbrella of 15%. “For now,” said Sefcovic. “We have not yet managed to put them,” he acknowledged. But he added: “American colleagues know that this is something very important for us (…) The doors are not closed forever.” In this sense, he has alluded to the Joint Agreement, which indicates that “the US and the EU agree to consider other sectors and products that are important for their economies and values chains for inclusion in the list of products to which only the tariffs” of 15%apply.
Digital platforms
In return, Brussels has highlighted the achievement – not effortlessly, emphasizes – to prevent Washington from entering conditions that involve playing the DSSA Digital Services Regulation and that of Digital Markets (DMA), which the Trump government has repeatedly criticized. “We have worked hard to ensure that our legitimate digital legislation is not touched in any way, as well as taxes on the digital services of our Member States,” said a community source knowledgeable about the details of the long negotiation. “We have made it very clear to the US that no change to the laws was on the table,” he also emphasizes the commission in his official communications.
The European executive also highlights the importance of having specifically included that to key sectors such as the pharmacist will be applied 15% and nothing more, in view of the expected American announcement of strong increases in tariffs to this sector in an imminent way. This “exclusive guarantee”, as defined by Von der Leyen, constitutes a “insurance policy in the form of that roof of 15%,” says the source in this regard, demonstrating at the same time that neither Brussels just trusted Washington.
The agreement “represents a concrete demonstration of our commitment to a fair trade and investment, balanced and mutually beneficial,” he says despite the entire joint declaration. “Predictability for our companies and consumers. Stability in the greatest commercial relationship and security for European jobs and long -term economic growth,” said Von der read the agreement that also states, “reinforces transatlantic relations.”
The joint statement also fixes the first products or sectors that will benefit from an exemption of 15%, with a “zero or near zero” tariff: it is “natural resources not available, such as cork”, as well as all airplanes and pieces of airplanes, generic medicines and their chemical ingredients and precursors. “A list, says Brussels, which the two parts” work to expand in the future. “
“This is not the end”
“This is not the end, just the beginning,” Sefcovic insisted again and again. That the agreement in writing has taken almost a month to be signed by the two parties – the political agreement, of the word, between the American and von der Leyen – is another sample of how difficult they have been uncertain negotiations until the last moment.
The final pact is consolidated three days after several European leaders very involved in the negotiations, from von der Leide to the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, or the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, were in the White House, wrapping President Ukraine, in his meeting with Trump. It has not been revealed if the tariff issue was again treated in some apart from the cameras. But Trump alluded during one of his address to the “great agreement” that he had closed with the German.
In a first assessment from the Ministry of Economy directed by Carlos Corps, it has been highlighted that the framework agreement “confirms and concrete” what was negotiated in July and highlights “that uncertainty has been dispelled, also around sectors as important as the pharmacist or semiconductors.” From next week, the sources advance, “meetings will be resumed with the most exposed sectors, to deepen the assessment of specific impacts and needs.”
In addition to the 15% generalized, by this agreement, the EU promised (LNG, oil and nuclear energy) worth 640,000 million euros. According to the document, “until 2028” will do it, when Brussels intends that the EU has stopped acquiring energy from Russia. In addition, according to the bilateral agreement, the “intention” of the EU is expressed to buy American artificial intelligence chips for “at least” 40,000 million dollars.
Europe also declares its intention to invest in American defense equipment – one of the points that Trump has highlighted since the announcement in Scotland – although also in lazy terms: the block “plans to substantially increase its acquisition of military and defense teams to the US, with the support and collaboration of the US government”. Critics of the agreement, such as the president of the Commission of Commerce in the Eurocamara, Bernd Lange, have highlighted the lack of clarity about steel and aluminum, whose exports remain to the tax of 50%. The statement is limited to indicating that with respect to these metals and their derived products, the two parties intend to “study the possibility of cooperating to delimit their respective national markets of excess capacity, guaranteeing at the same time some supply chains safe with each other, in particular through tariff contingent solutions”.
Sefcovic has defended the agreement as the lesser evil, since the alternative, generalized tariffs of 30% to European imports and even higher in certain sectors, would have meant a “commercial war with tariffs by clouds and a political escalation that does not help anyone”.
Before the presentation of the final declaration, the European ambassadors before the EU were summoned emergency on Thursday morning to analyze the text, at a meeting that lasted an hour and a half. According to diplomatic sources, the initial reception of the same – in the absence of studying the details – was widely “positive” among the delegations, despite the criticisms made by many European capitals after the initial pact was known, which received it “without any enthusiasm,” as the president of the Spanish Government said ,.
