Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday unveiled a new trade agreement that will impose a 15 percent tariff on most European goods entering the United States, avoiding Trump’s threatened 30 percent tariff hike if a deal had not been reached by Aug. 1.
The agreement, announced during Trump’s visit to one of his golf resorts in Scotland, marks a significant shift in U.S.-EU trade relations.
“We are agreeing that the tariff straight-across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15%,” Trump said.
“They’re going to purchase $750 billion worth of energy, so that’s going to be great, and $600 billion of investments into the United States over and above what they have,” he added.
The 15 percent import tax, which is much higher than the roughly 1 percent average before Trump’s presidency, applies to a wide range of goods, including automobiles, computer chips and some pharmaceuticals.
Von der Leyen said the two sides agreed to eliminate tariffs entirely for a group of “strategic” products, such as aircraft and aircraft parts, selected chemicals, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural goods and raw materials. She said negotiations would continue to expand that list.
As part of the deal, the European Union will purchase approximately $750 billion in U.S. natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel to reduce reliance on Russian energy, according to Trump. Von der Leyen stated that European nations would invest $600 billion in the U.S., although she did not provide specifics on the source of that funding.
Trump confirmed that a 50 percent U.S. tariff on imported steel would remain in place. Von der Leyen noted that both sides agreed to continue talks on managing global steel supply, with potential steps to reduce tariffs and establish import quotas.
Pharmaceuticals, Trump said, were excluded from Sunday’s agreement. Von der Leyen added that the topic was addressed separately.
The new 15 percent rate replaces the 10 percent baseline tariff that had been applied during negotiations. Even that lower rate had caused economic strain in Europe, prompting the European Commission to reduce its 2024 growth forecast from 1.3% to 0.9%.