European officials are working against the clock to secure a trade deal with Washington before early July, when so-called “reciprocal” tariffs will kick in on EU goods sent to the US.
“We absolutely are committed to finding agreements with the US that benefit both sides,” European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said, noting that “there has been no formal offer to the US of anything at present”.
The EU is currently facing the prospect of a 20% tariff on the goods it sends to the US, a policy concocted by the White House to rebalance its $235.6 billion (€208.2bn) trade deficit with the bloc. That total, from 2024, looks at goods and not services.
While the deficit is partially linked to the strength of the US economy and the dollar, Trump views the imbalance as exploitation. In response to market panic, the US president announced a 90-day pause on his tariff plans in early April, although he left a 10% baseline levy in place. In response, Brussels paused retaliatory tariffs on €21bn of US goods until 14 July.
The Commission’s comments on Friday came in response to a report in the Financial Times that suggested Brussels wants to increase its purchases of US goods by €50bn to reduce its trade deficit with the US.
According to FT journalists, who interviewed EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, Brussels is looking to increase its purchases of LNG from the US, as well as agricultural products like soybeans.
“This is entirely consistent with what the European Commission has been saying since President Trump won the election,” Gill said on Friday.
“There are areas where we believe we can potentially increase our imports from the US, and that would also have the additional benefit of reducing … the trading goods surplus that we enjoy and which seems to be such a fixation on the other side of the Atlantic.”
Šefčovič also told the FT that Brussels would not accept a scenario where the 10% baseline tariff on EU goods remains in place.
Asked about the comments on Friday, the commission did not respond directly. Gill instead stressed that tariffs are a lose-lose policy instrument and talked up Brussels' “zero for zero” trading proposition. The EU has suggested a deal in which no tariffs would be collected on certain goods when trading with the US.
In negotiations with Washington, Brussels is also emphasising service trade — often forgotten in public declarations from the White House. In 2023, the EU exported €319bn of services to the US, while importing €427bn.
