The European Union has delayed retaliatory tariffs on exports from the United States as officials scramble to reach a trade deal with Washington ahead of US President Donald Trump’s August 1 deadline.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on Sunday that the bloc would extend its suspension of countermeasures as it continued negotiations with the Trump administration.
“At the same time, we will continue to prepare for the countermeasures, so we’re fully prepared,” von der Leyen said during a news conference in Brussels.
“We have always been very clear that we prefer a negotiated solution,” she added.
“This remains the case, and we will use the time that we have now until the 1st of August.”
The EU’s announcement comes after Trump on Saturday unveiled plans to slap a 30 percent tariff on European and Mexican exports from August 1.
The EU in March announced retaliatory tariffs on 26 billion euros ($30bn) of US exports in response to Trump’s duties on steel and aluminium.
The bloc paused the measures for 90 days the following month after Trump announced he would delay the implementation of his so-called “reciprocal tariffs”.
The EU’s pause had been due to expire at midnight on Monday.
EU trade ministers are scheduled to convene in Brussels on Monday to discuss options for responding to Trump’s latest tariff threats.
On Sunday, White House Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett said that Trump was not happy with the “sketches of deals” presented by US trade partners so far and that their offers would “need to be better”.
“These tariffs are real if the president doesn’t get a deal that he thinks is good enough, but, you know, conversations are ongoing, and we’ll see where the dust settles,” Hassett told ABC News’s This Week.
Taken together, EU member countries are the US’s largest trading partner.
US-EU trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.
