President Donald Trump appeared cautiously optimistic on Friday about the chances of reaching a trade deal with the European Union before his self-imposed Aug. 1 deadline.
“I would say that we have a 50-50 chance, maybe less than that, but a 50-50 chance of making a deal with the EU,” Trump told reporters at the White House before heading to Scotland on a private visit and to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The U.S. and EU have been locked in intense negotiations in recent weeks as the deadline looms for Trump to impose a 30 percent tariff on all imports from the 27-country bloc which totaled $605 billion last year.
The president on Friday said any deal with the EU countries will have to be one where they “buy down their tariffs, because they’re right now at 30 percent.” In essence, that depends on how willing the bloc is to lower its barriers to American exports, Trump said.
Last year, the United States exported about $370 billion worth of goods to the EU. A large portion of those, along with some U.S. services exports, could be hit with EU retaliation if there is no agreement.
Still, Trump told reporters he was more optimistic about reaching a deal with the EU than he was about reaching a deal with Japan in the days before Washington and Tokyo reached an agreement last week.
“I would have said we have a 25 percent chance with Japan. And they kept coming back, and we made a deal,” he said.
UK ‘fine tuning’: Trump is spending the weekend in Scotland at his Turnberry and Aberdeen golf resorts, where he will host Starmer and Scottish First Minister John Swinney.
Trump told reporters that he and Starmer “want to talk about certain aspects” of the trade agreement his administration reached with Starmer’s government in May. “More fine tuning. And also we’re going to do a little celebrating together,” the president said.
In response to a question, Trump said he did not have much wiggle room to provide more generous terms on his steel and aluminum tariffs for the United Kingom in exchange for London addressing U.S. concerns about its digital services tax.
“Not a lot, because if I do it for one, I have to do it for all. So on that, steel and aluminum — not a lot,” Trump said.
As part of the framework agreement inked in May, the U.K. was conditionally promised a quota to export steel to the U.S. at the low “most-favored nation” rate. However, that provision has not yet been finalized after some in U.S. industry expressed concern.
