President Donald Trump said Friday that there’s a 50-50 chance he will strike a trade deal with the European Union ahead of a deadline for imposing hefty tariffs on the US’ close economic partner.
“I would say that we have a 50-50 chance, maybe less than that,” Trump said at the White House. “But they want to make a deal very badly.”
Still, he left the door open for a last-minute agreement, saying he’d only put the odds of a trade pact with Japan at 25% before the US clinched a deal with that nation earlier this week. Trump later revised his prediction, saying the EU still has a “pretty good chance of making a deal.”
The 27-nation bloc would have to “buy down their tariffs” as part of any agreement, Trump said, similar to Japan’s agreement to invest $550 billion in the US, with the US getting the vast majority of any profits. The EU will also have to agree to further open its market to US imports.
Trump has vowed to impose 30% tariffs on the EU on August 1 should the two sides fail to reach an agreement.
The White House is also planning to send out letters to roughly 200 countries next week unilaterally setting a range of tariff rates.
“It’s basically going to say, you’re going to pay 10%, you’re going to pay 15%, you’re going to pay maybe less, I don’t know,” Trump said. “When those letters go out … that means they have a deal, it’s done, they pay that tariff.”
He added that the US’ trade negotiations with Canada have effectively stalled and that his administration is no longer focused on trying to strike a deal.
Some context: Trump earlier this month said he’d raise tariffs to 35% on Canadian goods imported to the United States that aren’t currently exempted by the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. That rate currently stands at 25%.
But Trump heaped praise on Australia, saying the country has offered to lift an import ban on US beef.
“Obviously, they’re looking to do something,” Trump said.
Trump’s top economic advisers are set to negotiate with their counterparts from China in Sweden early next week after agreeing on the framework of a deal last month. Trump on Friday said he hopes for the success, saying his administration has “the confines of a deal with China.”
