Ahead of an EU-China summit later this month, officials from both sides criticized the other’s trade practices and warned that conditions need to improve if they plan to work together on market access, economic security measures and other trade issues.
The head of the trade committee in the EU parliament said one of the sticking points in the negotiations with the U.S. is whether 50% tariffs on steel and 25% tariffs on cars and car parts continue to be collected as the two parties move from an agreement in principle to a detailed agreement.
Vietnam will eliminate tariffs on U.S. goods as part of a trade deal agreed to this week, President Donald Trump said July 2 on Truth Social.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, on Bloomberg Television on June 30, didn't predict how many deals would be announced with the 18 largest trading partners of the U.S. before July 9. However, he said that countries "are coming in with offers" that long-time staff negotiators "can't believe," because they're so good.
U.S. and Chinese officials said the two countries are still on pace for Beijing to ease its restrictions over rare earths and for Washington to lift its countermeasures, including export controls.
The U.S. has the power to force some manufacturing out of Canada and Mexico and have it locate in the U.S., so that those cars or other products avoid tariffs, a think-tank analyst said at a Washington International Trade Association event.
The U.S. and China reached an agreement for Beijing to rein in export curbs on critical minerals, and for the U.S. to "provide to China what was agreed to," President Donald Trump said June 11, offering few details about the substance of the deal.
Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic discussed export controls and trade remedies during a meeting in Paris last week, according to an unofficial translation of a Chinese readout of the talks. China said the two sides continued to discuss the EU's countervailing duties on electric vehicle imports from China (see 2408200020) and made some progress toward an agreement on price commitments.
President Donald Trump got the phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping he'd been seeking, and Trump wrote on social media that "there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products."
Cecilia Malmstrom, a former top European Commission trade official, said the EU is "painfully aware that the transatlantic relationship as we used to know it has been severely damaged."