July 26 The United States and the European Union reached an agreement on easing current tensions in trade relations, President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced during a meeting with journalists in *** together on Wednesday, local time, saying they would work to eliminate tariffs and trade barriers to avoid the current touch-and-go trade war. The U.S. agreed not to impose tariffs on European cars, while the EU agreed to import more U.S. soybeans and natural gas.
The two sides stood side-by-side in the Rose Garden of the White House and **** announced the results together. Trump called it a "great day for free and fair trade." The two sides agreed to work toward zero tariffs, eliminating trade barriers and ending subsidies on non-automotive products. The two sides will launch a new round of negotiations to address steel and aluminum tariffs and various retaliatory tariffs. At the same time, the two sides will strengthen energy cooperation.
Juncker said the talks, which lasted about three hours, were very constructive and he was pleased to have reached an agreement today. The two sides will reassess the existing steel and aluminum tariffs in due course, while temporarily suspending further tariff increases.
The European Union has been a central target of the Trump administration's "assault" since it began its global trade disputes. The Trump administration has not given the EU a permanent waiver on the imposition of steel and aluminum tariffs, and has begun to formally impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Since then, Trump has further threatened to impose high tariffs on imported cars from the EU, and the impact on the EU economy of taxing imported cars would be even greater compared to the scale of the steel and aluminum tariffs. Eric Schweitzer, president of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Eric Schweitzer), said the U.S. tariffs on imported cars will reduce Germany's annual economic output by about 6 billion euros. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said that the EU will be ready to fight back against any move made by the United States regarding auto tariffs.
In fact, the EU side has not backed down in the face of the Trump administration's aggressiveness. The EU has imposed tariffs on about 2.8 billion euros worth of products imported from the US from June 22 as a countermeasure to the high US tariffs on steel and aluminum products. The products covered by this tariff increase include a range of U.S. product categories such as steel and aluminum products, agricultural products and motorcycles.
Source Netflix