German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday expressed confidence that an agreement will soon be reached in the US-EU tariff dispute, days after US President Donald Trump extended his deadline for a deal to be achieved to August 1, reported dpa.
In a major debate in the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, Merz said he was "cautiously optimistic" that an agreement could be sealed in the next few days, or by the end of the month at the latest.
"Our goal is to reach a trade agreement with the United States of America as quickly as possible, one that links reciprocal trade between America and the European Union with the lowest possible tariffs," said Merz.
"Achieving this goal is not easy given the current demands of the American government," he admitted, adding that he was working hard to find a solution. "Jobs are at stake here."
The European Commission has been negotiating with Washington over the customs dispute for months.
The Trump administration has announced a baseline 10% tariff on all EU goods, along with further sector-specific charges on key sectors such as cars, aluminium and steel.
A deadline for talks due to expire on Wednesday was pushed back to August by Trump, who earlier this week published more than a dozen letters with details on his tariff demands to various countries, mainly in Asia.
In Strasbourg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reiterated on Wednesday that she had "a good exchange" with Trump on the issue of tariffs "to help move things forward."
"We're looking for [a] reliable framework from which we can keep building our common trade," she said in the European Parliament.
- Friedrich Merz
- US-EU
- Tariffs
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
