Trump says ‘very nice’ EU will ‘probably’ receive new tariff rates on Thursday

The EU will “probably” receive a letter setting its new US tariff rate on Thursday, Donald Trump said on Tuesday, as the US president said the bloc had shifted from being “very tough” to “very nice”.

The comments come amid growing efforts by the EU to avoid sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” on its US exports, which had previously been set to enter into force on Wednesday, but have since been pushed back to 1 August.

They also come as Trump has this week begun to release letters setting new tariff rates for US trading partners, which have so far largely matched the duties announced – but then quickly suspended – on “Liberation Day” in early April.

“They [the EU] are very tough but now they're being very nice to us,” Trump told reporters, adding that the bloc had been “among the toughest” trade negotiators and was “in many respects a lot worse than China”.

“We'll see what happens. We're probably two days off from sending them a letter. We are talking to them. I just want you to know a letter means a deal,” he said.

Trump has already imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium, 25% duties on cars and car parts, and a 10% levy on most other goods since his return to the White House in January.

He has also repeatedly threatened to impose other sector-specific levies. On Tuesday, he said tariffs on pharmaceutical products will be introduced “very soon” and that a new 50% levy on copper would be announced later that day.

The duties currently affect €370 billion worth of EU goods, or 70% of the bloc’s total exports to the US, according to EU officials.

Trump also repeated his criticisms of Brussels’ decisions to fine US tech firms, including Google and Apple, which he said had taken “so much money away our country”.

"A bit more time", EU says

The European Commission, which oversees the bloc’s trade policy, has signalled it is willing to accept Trump’s 10% blanket levy in exchange for exemptions on Trump’s metal and car duties.

But Brussels has threatened to retaliate against US exports valued at up to €116 billion, spread across two separate packages, if no “mutually acceptable” deal is agreed.

The UK and Vietnam are the only two countries that have clinched a trade deal with the US since Trump announced his punishing reciprocal tariffs in April, which upended global trade and financial markets before being suspended one week later.

Both agreements – which fall well short of traditional trade deals – left steep tariffs in place and were staunchly criticised by China, which argues that Washington is seeking to cut Beijing out of global value chains.

On Tuesday, Trump also wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that “all money [from the tariffs] will be due and payable” from 1 August and that “no extensions will be granted”.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday formally extending the tariff deadline from Wednesday to 1 August.

"It seems the US has now postponed in a sense this deadline to 1 August, so that gives us a bit more time," EU Commissioner for Economy Valdis Dombrovskis said on Tuesday.

(om)