EU Gets Tariff Deadline Extension
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What are the latest developments in US-EU trade negotiations?
President Trump's patience wears thin as Russia pummels Ukraine with drones and missiles. Plus, the EU gets a deadline extension for its trade talks with Washington. And Canada's new leader takes up the task of fixing the country's relationship with Trump.
Our previous prime minister, who I think Trump initially liked because he had the name and he's an attractive personality, because he was seen to diss Trump behind his back, that brought on his ire and the relationship never improved.
So Carney's very conscious of that. It's Tuesday, May the 27th. I'm Azhar Sukri for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for Luke Vargas. Here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. President Trump is weighing sanctions against Moscow this week as he grows frustrated by Russian President Vladimir Putin's intensifying attacks on Ukraine, which killed at least 12 people this weekend.
How is President Trump responding to Russia's actions in Ukraine?
That's according to people familiar with Trump's thinking, who added that the president is also growing tired with the slow pace of peace negotiations and is considering abandoning them altogether if a final push doesn't work. Here was the president on Sunday.
I'm not happy with what Putin's doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all, okay?
Just hours after Trump's comments on Sunday, Russia defied his calls for an end to the bombardment by launching another aerial attack on Ukraine, this time its largest ever drone and missile assault. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the strikes and called for fresh economic sanctions against Russia, a step Trump had shown himself reluctant to take after his call last week with Putin. President Trump says he will hold off on implementing punitive trade tariffs on European products until July the 9th. This weekend, he walked back a recent threat to impose 50% levies on EU products by June the 1st if the two sides couldn't reach a trade deal. It came after a phone call from the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen requesting the extension. For its part, the EU said it agreed to fast-track the trade talks Our Brussels reporter, Kim McRaehl, has been tracking the negotiations.
Kim, give us an idea of just how important U.S.-EU trade is on a global scale.
What are the implications of the tariff deadline extension?
So the trade relationship is huge. The EU is the U.S. 's biggest trading partner and vice versa. And if you think about it in terms of the importance for the U.S. economy, trading goods and services with the EU actually accounted last year for almost 5% of the U.S. 's gross domestic products.
And the EU does have a pretty significant trade surplus with the US. Is that right?
Yeah, that is right. So this is an issue that President Trump raises quite a lot and clearly a big concern for him. But President Trump tends to focus specifically on the goods trade deficit that the US has with the EU. What that doesn't fully account for is that the US actually has a services surplus. So, you know, if you combine both the goods trade and the services trade, there is still for the US a deficit overall in trade with the EU, but it's a lot smaller than what typically is raised by US trade officials.
Aside from that trade imbalance, what are the main sticking points in these negotiations?
The Trump administration is coming at these talks looking for some pretty significant concessions from trading partners generally and from the EU. And some of what they're asking for are changes to policy that the EU wouldn't tend to consider to be trade issues. One example I think that people have probably heard about is European countries' value-added tax. And that's a consumption tax. It's not that different from a sales tax. It's used throughout Europe and a lot of other countries, not used in the US. Generally, it's seen as a non-discriminatory tax, but it's been an issue that President Trump has raised repeatedly as a major concern. And it's something that European countries' governments rely on the value-added tax for a lot of their revenue.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What are the latest developments in US-EU trade negotiations?
0:03–1:02
2
How is President Trump responding to Russia's actions in Ukraine?
1:02–2:43
3
What are the implications of the tariff deadline extension?
2:43–5:06
4
What key issues are affecting US-EU trade talks?
5:06–6:40
5
What concessions is the Trump administration seeking from the EU?
6:40–8:08
6
What is the current status of negotiations before the July deadline?
8:08–9:39
7
How are market reactions influenced by trade tensions?
9:39–12:38
Speakers
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