EU 'Fully Committed' to Reaching US Trade Deal

The contacts come after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened lat week but then postponed, to hit EU goods with a huge tariff, voicing frustration that talks with the EU were "going nowhere."

Sefcovic said in a post on X that he had "good calls" with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

"We continue to stay in constant contact," he added.

Trump has called for eliminating the EU's surplus in goods trade with the United States.

On May 23, he threatened to impose 50-percent tariffs on the bloc from June 1, sending markets into a tailspin.

The U.S. president had already hit the bloc with multiple waves of tariffs, including 25-percent duties on cars, steel and aluminium.

The European Commission has been leading talks on behalf of the 27-country bloc in search of a mutually beneficial deal with Washington, though with little to show so far.

But Trump agreed on May 25 to delay the heftier levies on the EU until July 9 after a phone call with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on May 26 criticised Trump's "terrible language" about the European Union, in response to his comments that the bloc was formed to "screw" the United States.

"It's against history. And it's certainly not the purpose of this region," she said, urging negotiations on a deal.

Brussels is consulting with member states on plans to impose tariffs on U.S. goods worth nearly 100 billion euros ($113 billion) if negotiations fail to produce a deal.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods with the European Union was $236 billion in 2024.

Source: HDN