European Union leaders discussed new proposals from the United States on a trade deal at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen not ruling out the possibility that tariff talks could fail and saying “all options remain on the table.”
Time is running out for the bloc to find a common position before a respite on higher tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump expires on July 9, which could hammer exporters from cars to pharmaceuticals.
European leaders were meeting to decide whether they want to push for a quick trade agreement or keep fighting for a better deal, with the EU’s two biggest economies apparently at odds.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged the EU to do a “quick and simple” trade deal rather than a “slow and complicated” one.
But in a separate briefing, French President Emmanuel Macron, while also wanting a quick and pragmatic trade deal, said his country would not accept terms that were not balanced.
All tools must be used to ensure a fair deal and if the U.S. baseline rate of 10 percent remained in place, then Europe’s response would have to have an equivalent impact, he said.
“Our goodwill should not be seen as a weakness,” Macron added.
French officials have argued that the European Commission should take a firmer stance including by targeting U.S. services.
Similarly, Merz said European leaders were “basically united” on concluding the Mercosur trade deal with the South American trade bloc, but Macron said he could not support the deal in its current form.
Von der Leyen said the EU had received the latest U.S. document on Thursday for further negotiations and the bloc was still assessing it.
“We are ready for a deal. At the same time, we are preparing for the possibility that no satisfactory agreement is reached,” she told reporters. “In short, all options remain on the table.”
No specifics were immediately available on the document, which one EU diplomat described as a “two-pager, principle agreement,” adding the United States did not want to get into specific industrial sectors.
The bloc is already subject to U.S. import tariffs of 50 percent on its steel and aluminum, 25 percent for cars and car parts along with the 10 percent tariff on most other EU goods that Trump has threatened could rise to 50 percent without an agreement.
The European Union has agreed, but not imposed, tariffs on 21 billion euros ($24.55 billion) of U.S. goods and is debating a further package of tariffs on up to 95 billion euros of U.S. imports.
Among the EU rebalancing options is a tax on digital advertising, which would hit U.S. giants like Alphabet Inc’s Google, Meta, Apple, X and Microsoft and eat into the trade surplus in services the U.S. has with the EU.
The EU leaders also discussed ideas to carve out a new form of trade cooperation with Asia-Pacific countries that would be a way of reforming what they see as an ineffective World Trade Organization (WTO).
Merz said the idea was in its early stages but could include mechanisms to resolve disputes, as the WTO was meant to do.
EU leaders discuss new U.S. trade proposal as deal clock ticks down
