EU and the USA in front of customs deal: from the Leyen relies on agreement until July!

EU and the USA in front of customs deal: from the Leyen relies on agreement until July!

USA - Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission, emphasized the urgency of further negotiations in the ongoing customs dispute with the USA. In a current phone call with US President Donald Trump, she said that the EU needed time by July 9th to reach an agreement. This reports ZVW . The background of this discussions is Trump's threat, from June 1st, to introduce penalty tariffs from 50 percent to products from the EU, while US products are excluded from these tariffs. Trump himself explains on his platform that negotiations with the EU does not move forward, and describes the Union as an organization that benefits from the USA overall.

In his argument, Trump explains that the EU's trade policy resulted in an annual deficit of over $ 250 million for the United States. However, this number is considered unclear because it may have meant billions and could be based on a faulty source. The trade between the EU and the USA amounted to a total of 865 billion euros in 2024, the EU exported goods worth 531.6 billion euros to the United States, while the United States achieved an export of EUR 333.4 billion into the EU. This results in a deficit of 198.2 billion euros, whereby the trade in services was not included.

reactions and negotiations

Federal Minister of Finance Lars Klingbeil optimistically commented on the possibility of an agreement and described the ongoing negotiations as crucial. At the same time, Poland's Minister of Commerce Michal Baranowski relativizes the tariffs by pointing out that public statements are not automatically implemented into political measures. He realizes that there is a clear signal that the United States and the EU tries to hold back to each other with tariffs, and to continue negotiations until the beginning of July. Poland currently has the EU Presidency of the EU.

In this situation, the EU has positioned itself clearly against Trump's proposed "mutual" trade policy. According to EU representation in Germany is committed to an open and calculated global trading system. She recently published a question-answer catalog on the US Customs Policy, which explains the differences and the respective trading situation.

economic implications

In 2023, the bilateral goods trade between the EU and the United States was 851 billion euros, with the EU exports of 503 billion euros to the USA and the USA was worth importing 347 billion euros. While the EU exposed a trade surplus of 157 billion euros in the event of goods, there was a trade deficit of 109 billion euros in the service sector. This convergent influence on the trade dynamics between the two economic blocks offers space for negotiations, especially in the question of customs tariff structures, which partly vary between the EU and the USA.