EU envoy heads to Washington as trade deal deadline looms
Since the United States observes the Independence Day public holiday on July 4, the two days will be critical for the European Union to snag a deal to avoid the sweeping levies. If no agreement is reached, the default tariff on EU imports is expected to double to 20 percent or even higher — Trump having at one point threatened 50 percent. Sefcovic said he has held 'intensive' and 'very intense' discussions with his US counterparts, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
'Of course, we hope to see them in Washington, DC later this week, we know that there is the fourth of July on Friday, so it leaves us Wednesday and Thursday for eventual meetings, which we are planning right now,' he told reporters in Brussels. Sefcovic last met US negotiators face-to-face in Paris on the sidelines of an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development meeting early in June, but he has spoken to his counterparts several times by phone in the past few months.
A technical EU delegation is already in Washington, Sefcovic said. The EU commission has received 'first drafts of the proposals for the eventual agreement in principle' that 'we are working on', he added. The EU's biggest economies, France and Germany, last week urged a quick agreement—indicating they could back an unbalanced accord with some level of US tariffs on EU goods.
Meanwhile, the European Union said Monday it had agreed a new long-term trade deal with Ukraine, covering imports of food products from the war-torn country that have angered EU farmers. 'With this modernized agreement, we are securing trade flows from Ukraine to Europe and global markets,' European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.
'At the same time, we continue to safeguard the interests of our farmers.' Brussels and Kyiv have been wrangling over the deal after protests from farmers saw the EU slap quotas on tariff-free Ukrainian agricultural imports into the bloc.
In the wake of Russia's February 2022 invasion, the EU gave tariff-free access to most Ukrainian agricultural imports to help the country's economy. But irate EU farmers said the Ukrainian produce unfairly undercuts their own. In response, Brussels added certain restrictions in 2024, when it extended the agreement for one additional year, by introducing a maximum ceiling on certain tariff-free products such as cereals, poultry, eggs, sugar and corn.
The European Commission said that under the new deal -- which still needs to be finalized -- quotas would remain for those sensitive agricultural areas. The new terms 'improve access compared to the previous 2016 agreement, but moderate imports compared to their peak,' EU agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen said.
In return, Kyiv will cut its quotas for pork, poultry and sugar imported from the EU and push to align its food production standards with those of the 27-nation bloc by 2028, Brussels said.
Agricultural powerhouse Ukraine has been desperate to maintain preferential access for its products to the EU as it seeks to keep income flowing after three-and-a-half grueling years of war. — AFP
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