The USA and the European Union have reached a wide-ranging trade agreement, ending a months-long standoff and averting a full-blown commerce struggle simply days earlier than President Donald Trump’s deadline to impose steep tariffs.
The EU pays 15 % tariffs on most items, together with vehicles. The tariff fee is half the 30 % Trump had threatened to implement beginning on Friday. Brussels additionally agreed on Sunday to spend lots of of billions of {dollars} on US weaponry and vitality merchandise on high of current expenditures.
Talking to reporters at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Trump hailed the settlement because the “greatest deal ever made”. “I believe it’s going to be nice for each events. It’s going to deliver us nearer collectively,” he added.
European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned the settlement would “deliver stability” and “deliver predictability that’s essential for our companies on either side of the Atlantic”.
Von der Leyen defended the deal, saying the intention was to rebalance a commerce surplus with the US. Trump has made no secret of utilizing tariffs to attempt to trim US commerce deficits.
Sunday’s settlement capped off months of often tense shuttle diplomacy between Brussels and Washington though neither aspect disclosed the total particulars of the pact or launched any written supplies.
It follows preliminary commerce pacts the US signed with Japan, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines and a 90-day commerce truce with China.
So how will the deal impression the 2 sides, which account for nearly a 3rd of world commerce, and can it finish the threats of a tariff struggle?
What was agreed?
At a information occasion at Trump’s golf resort, von der Leyen mentioned a 15 % tariff would apply to European vehicles, prescription drugs and semiconductors – all vital merchandise for Europe’s economic system.
For his half, Trump mentioned US levies on metal and aluminium, which he has set at 50 % on many international locations, wouldn’t be minimize for EU merchandise, dashing the hopes of trade within the bloc. Elsewhere, aerospace tariffs will stay at zero for now.
In trade for the 15 % tariff fee on EU items, Trump mentioned the bloc can be “opening up their international locations at zero tariff” for American exports.
As well as, he mentioned the EU would spend an additional $750bn on US vitality merchandise, make investments $600bn within the US and purchase army tools value “lots of of billions of {dollars}”.
Von der Leyen confirmed that the EU would search to purchase an additional $250bn of US vitality merchandise every year from now till 2027.
“With this deal, we’re securing entry to our largest export market,” she mentioned.
On the identical time, she acknowledged that the 15 % tariffs can be “a problem for some” European industries.
The EU is the US’s largest buying and selling companion with two-way commerce in items and providers final 12 months reaching almost $2 trillion.
How have European leaders responded?
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the settlement, saying it avoids “an pointless escalation in transatlantic commerce relations”.
He mentioned a commerce struggle “would have hit Germany’s export-oriented economic system arduous”, declaring that the German automotive trade would see US tariffs lowered from 27.5 % to fifteen %.
However French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou known as the deal a “darkish day” for Europe, saying the bloc had caved in to the US president with an unbalanced deal that spares US imports from any fast European retaliation.
“It’s a darkish day when an alliance of free peoples, introduced collectively to affirm their widespread values and to defend their widespread pursuits, resigns itself to submission,” Bayrou wrote on X of what he known as the “von der Leyen-Trump deal”.
Wolfgang Niedermark, a board member of the Federation of German Industries commerce physique, known as the deal “an insufficient compromise” with the EU “accepting painful tariffs”.
A 15 % tariff fee “can have an enormous adverse impression on Germany’s export-oriented trade”, he mentioned.
Earlier, Benjamin Haddad, France’s European affairs minister, mentioned: “The commerce settlement … will deliver short-term stability to financial actors threatened by the escalation of American tariffs, however it’s unbalanced.”
Echoing that sentiment, Dutch Overseas Commerce Minister Hanneke Boerma mentioned the deal was “not preferrred” and known as on the fee to proceed negotiations with Washington.
The European Fee is liable for negotiating commerce offers for your entire bloc.
EU ambassadors can be discussing the settlement with the fee this week.
How was commerce performed earlier than the deal?
On July 12, Trump threatened to impose 30 percent tariffs on EU items if the 2 sides couldn’t attain a deal earlier than this Friday, the day a suspension expires on the implementation of what Trump calls his “reciprocal tariffs”, which he positioned on almost all international locations on the planet.
These “reciprocal tariffs” are resulting from come into impact along with the 25 percent tariffs on vehicles and automotive components and the 50 percent levy on metal and aluminium merchandise Trump already put in place.
On the European aspect, it’s understood that Brussels would have pushed forward with a retaliatory tariffs bundle on 90 billion euros ($109bn) of US items, together with automotive components and bourbon, if talks had damaged down.
The EU had been a frequent goal of escalating commerce rhetoric by Trump, who accused the bloc of “ripping off” the US.
In 2024, the US ran a $235.6bn items deficit with the EU. Prescribed drugs, automotive components and industrial chemical substances had been amongst Europe’s largest exports to the US, in accordance with EU information.
How will the deal impression the US and EU?
Bloomberg Economics estimated {that a} no-deal final result would have raised the efficient US tariff fee on European items to almost 18 % on Friday.
The brand new deal brings that quantity right down to 16 %, providing a small reprieve to European exporting corporations. Nonetheless, present commerce obstacles are a lot greater than earlier than Trump took workplace in 2025.
In response to Bruegel, a analysis group, the common US tariff fee on EU exports was simply 1.5 % on the finish of 2024.
William Lee, chief economist on the Milken Institute, advised Al Jazeera: “I believe the [Trump] technique has been clear from the very starting. … It’s brinkmanship. … Both companion with the US or face excessive tariffs.”
In the meantime, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick mentioned: “President Trump simply unlocked one of many greatest economies on the planet. The European Union goes to open its $20 trillion market and utterly settle for our auto and industrial requirements for the primary time ever.”
