Trump agrees to extend EU trade talks after 50% tariff threat
US President Donald Trump has agreed to extend a deadline to negotiate tariffs with the European Union by more than a month.
Last month, he announced a 20% tariff – or import tax – on most EU goods, but later cut this to 10% to allow time for negotiations. On Friday, Trump expressed frustration with the pace of talks and threatened to raise the tariff rate to an even higher level of 50% as soon as 1 June.
On Sunday, he wrote on social media that he was pushing his deadline back to 9 July, after a “very nice” call with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief.
Von der Leyen echoed Trump’s assessment of the call and said the bloc was “ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively”.
