Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on X that the EU’s executive commission was pushing “at pace” towards an EU-U.S. deal and the two sides were in constant contact.
That announcement came after Trump’s call with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who told Trump that she “wants to get down to serious negotiations,” according to the U.S. president on Sunday.
The stakes are high given the size of the U.S.-EU trading relationship. Although the trade partners don’t have a free trade agreement like the one the U.S. has with Mexico and Canada, some $1.8 trillion in goods and services cross the Atlantic in both directions each year.
EU Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho told a news conference that von der Leyen and Trump agreed to “fast-track” the negotiations. The result of the call means that “there is a new impetus for these negotiations, and we will take it from there … from our side, we always said we were ready to make a deal.”
The EU has offered Trump a “zero for zero” deal in which tariffs would be removed on industrial goods including automobiles, but the U.S. administration has said it will not lower tariffs below a 10% baseline imposed on almost all its trading partners. Trump has also announced tariffs of 25% on steel and automobiles.
