Trump to delay 50% tariffs on EU until July 9 after call with von der Leyen

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy 

  President Donald Trump said he would extend the deadline for the European Union to face 50 per cent tariffs until July 9 after a phone call with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.  

“We had a very nice call and I agreed to move it,” Trump told reporters Sunday at Morristown Airport in New Jersey on his way back to Washington.

 

Von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm, said earlier Sunday in a post on X that “Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” but “a good deal” will need “time until July 9.” That’s the date that Trump’s 90-day pause of his so-called reciprocal tariffs had originally been set to end. 

 

The EU had been slated for a 20 per cent tariff under those reciprocal rates announced in April, and a temporary pause took the rate down to 10 per cent through July 9. 

 

But Trump on Friday threatened to impose a higher, 50 per cent tariff on the EU starting June 1 after complaining the bloc was slow-walking negotiations and unfairly targeting US companies with lawsuits and regulations.

 

US equity-index futures climbed in early Asian trading after Trump’s comments. The dollar fluctuated after falling on Friday to its lowest level since December 2023.

 

The EU has been struggling to understand what Trump is looking for in trade negotiations. Officials have suggested that the EU and US could take their tariffs down to zero on many goods, but Trump has been focused on what he calls non-tariff trade barriers. 

 

Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures hours earlier that the US faces a “simultaneous challenge” of negotiating with the EU as a bloc on tariffs while also seeking to address most of those non-tariff barriers in talks with individual European nations, creating a “negotiation problem.”

 

The EU last week shared a revived trade proposal with the US in a bid to boost talks, and the bloc’s trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, held a call with his US counterpart, Jamieson Greer, on Friday.

 

The new EU framework covers tariff and non-tariff barriers, as well as ways to enhance economic security, mutual investments, strategic purchases and cooperation on global challenges, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss the terms, which are not public. 

 

Trump’s 50 per cent tariff threat would hit $321 billion worth of US-EU goods trade, lowering US gross domestic product by close to 0.6 per cent and boosting prices by more than 0.3 per cent, according to Bloomberg Economics calculations.

 

The US president has said that he wants to use tariffs to encourage companies to build plants in the US rather than overseas to manufacture goods. On the same day he announced the 50 per cent EU tariff threat, he also threatened 25 per cent tariffs on smartphones made abroad by companies like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

 

But on Sunday, Trump said he agrees with recent comments by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that the US doesn’t need to bring back textile manufacturing into its borders. 

 

“We’re not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts, and we want to make military equipment,” Trump said, adding he wants to make “big things” in the US, citing chips, computers and AI development.