U.S. President Donald Trump declared his move to slap the EU with a 50 percent tariff was a success, claiming this pushed the bloc to speed up negotiations.
“I was extremely satisfied with the 50% Tariff allotment on the European Union, especially since they were slow walking (to put it mildly!), our negotiations with them,” the U.S. president said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.
“I have just been informed that the E.U. has called to quickly establish meeting dates. This is a positive event, and I hope that they will, FINALLY, like my same demand to China, open up the European Nations for Trade with the United States of America,” he added.
The statement comes on the heels of a relative appeasement between Brussels and Washington, after a call between the Trump and the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday led to a delay of the imposition of a 50 percent tariff on all European goods from June 1 to July 9.
The call marked a positive turn in negotiations between the two sides, after months of mounting frustrations from the Europeans that Washington was not engaging in propositions from the bloc, and rather requesting unilateral concessions.
The call between Trump and von der Leyen on Sunday added “a new impetus” to negotiations between the two sides, Paula Pinho, chief spokesperson for the European Commission, said on Monday.
“And we will take it from there,” Pinho said. “It’s positive to see that there’s engagement also on the level of the presidents and from our side, we always said that we were ready to make a deal.”
