President Donald Trump has backed down on his threat to speed up his 50 percent tariff on imports from the European Union following a ‘very nice call.’
Instead, he has agreed to extend his deadline for trade talks until July 9 after the head of the EU executive body said they needed more time to ‘reach a good deal.’
‘I received a call today from Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, requesting an extension on the June 1st deadline on the 50% Tariff with respect to Trade and the European Union,’ Trump revealed on Truth Social.
‘I agreed to the extension — July 9, 2025.
‘It was my privilege to do so. The Commission President said that talks will begin rapidly. Thank you for your attention to this matter.’
Trump threatened on Friday to intensify his trade war after expressing frustrations that trade talks were not moving quickly enough, saying he wanted steep new import taxes to start on June 1. The threat sent global stock markets plunging.
The president took to Truth Social on Friday morning to accuse the EU of being ‘very difficult to deal with’ and ‘taking advantage’ of the US.
But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged him to delay the tariffs until July, which was the deadline he had originally set when he announced new tariffs in April.
President Donald Trump has backed down on his threat to speed up his 50 percent tariff on imports from the European Union following a ‘very nice call’
Instead, he has agreed to extend his deadline for trade talks until July 9 after the head of the EU executive body said they needed more time to ‘reach a good deal’
Trump told reporters on Sunday that von der Leyen vowed to ‘rapidly get together to see if we can work something out.’
Von der Leyen said in a social media post that the EU was ready to move quickly in trade talks, describing the ‘good’ phone call with Trump.
The 50 percent tariff would hit EU members – which include some of America’s closest traditional military and economic allies – with a bigger levy than the one Trump has imposed on China.
After initially hiking tariffs on Beijing to over 100 percent, he has reduced the steepest to 30 percent.
Trump had slammed estimates of a $250,000,000 trade deficit between the US and Europe every year, describing it as ‘totally unacceptable.’
‘Our discussions with them are going nowhere!’ he proclaimed before threatening to slap a ‘straight 50 percent tariff’ on the EU.
‘There is no tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States,’ he added, giving European countries a week to transform their manufacturing processes.
The president has long stressed the revenue-raising prospects of tariffs, but such taxes, if imposed, would lead to substantial jumps in what Americans pay for European products, according to multiple studies.
Von der Leyen said in a social media post that the EU was ready to move quickly in trade talks, describing the ‘good’ phone call with Trump
The president took to Truth Social on Friday morning to accuse the EU of being ‘very difficult to deal with’ and ‘taking advantage’ of the US
Top EU exports to the US include pharmaceuticals, cars, machinery, petroleum oils, medical instruments, alcohols, car parts, electrical appliances, and chemicals.
Europe’s leading exporters to the US include Germany, Ireland, Italy, France, and the Netherlands.
The latest development comes weeks after he struck an emergency trade deal with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to ‘save’ the car industry.
The deal, which Trump said was only possible ‘because of Brexit,’ cuts U.S. tariffs on cars imported from the UK from 25 percent to 10 percent for the first 100,000 vehicles.
Ministers had feared that leading car makers were preparing to cut thousands of jobs unless the tariffs were reduced.
This is a breaking news story. More to come
