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EU trade chief meets Trump officials to avoid 'harmful tariffs'

Maros Séfcovic, the European Union's Trade Commissioner, was scheduled to meet with Donald Trump's top officials in charge of trade on Tuesday. The goal is to avoid U.S. tariffs that could be imposed on EU products as soon as next week.

Sefcovic has had two prior discussions with U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that have not altered Trump's plans for raising U.S. tariffs to match those charged by major trading partners, and to counter their non-tariff barriers.

The USTR and Washington's EU delegation office did not immediately comment on the discussion.

The meetings take place as some countries prepare tariff concessions in advance of Trump's announcement on April 2, of his reciprocal tariff plan. Trump has called this day "Liberation Day", for the U.S. economic system from unfair trade practices.

Reports from Tuesday indicated that India was open to reducing tariffs in the first stage on imports worth $23 billion. According to the World Trade Organization, India has one of the highest average trade-weighted tariff rates, at 12.1%. This compares to 2.5% in the U.S.

The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi announced that a U.S. trade delegation, led by Assistant U.S. Representative Brendan Lynch, will be in New Delhi from Tuesday to Saturday for talks with Indian officials.

Trump did not provide any details on his Monday remarks, in which he said he might give tariff breaks to "a lot" of countries. Trump said separate tariffs would be imposed on aluminum, pharmaceuticals, and autos in the "very near future."

EU officials are struggling to convince Trump to stop a trade conflict as he launches a multi-fronted tariff offensive that is expected to provoke strong retaliatory actions. Sefcovic stated last week that there has been little progress in negotiations with Washington since Trump imposed 25% tariffs for steel and aluminum imports at the beginning of this month.

Olof Gill, a spokesman for the European Commission, told reporters that the two sides would discuss the same topics they have been discussing in recent weeks: EU-U.S. Trade Relations. From our perspective, we believe both sides should make every effort to avoid harmful tariffs, build, rather than tear apart, the EU-U.S. economic and trade relationship, the strongest of its kind.

Sefcovic said the EU would be willing to talk about reducing the automotive tariffs both on the EU side and the US side, which include the EU's car tariff of 10% and the U.S. truck tariff of 25%.

No Rush for Canada

Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, told reporters in Halifax Canada was ready to take retaliatory measures against the U.S. if Trump took action on April 2. Trump has also threatened that he will end the tariff-free month for goods in compliance with the U.S., Mexico and Canada free trade agreement.

Carney added that Canada would not rush to negotiate with Trump with whom it has not spoken with since he took office. He also said that he wanted "substantive talks" between sovereign nations, a reference to Trump’s repeated demands that Canada be annexed by the U.S.

Carney stated that "we're not rushing into the table in order to get something." "We will only get the best deal when we have serious discussions between sovereign nations, a comprehensive 'Canada Strong' against America, as equals.

WARNING: RELIEF IS NOT IMMEDIATE

White House officials warned that countries that rush for early tariff relief are unlikely to be able to avoid them entirely, as Trump's calculations of reciprocal duties will include currency policies, non-tariff barriers and other factors which are harder to reverse.

The EU has delayed its first countermeasures until mid-April. This includes a 50% tariff for U.S. Bourbon. Trump responded by threatening to slap 200% tariffs on all wine and other alcoholic beverages from the EU, if they imposed retaliatory duties.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other Trump officials have stated that the focus of reciprocal tariffs will be the 15 countries with the largest goods trade surpluses in the U.S. Bessent referred to the 15 partners as "the Dirty 15."

The U.S. Census Bureau did not mention these countries, but the data shows that the following had the biggest trade surplus with the U.S. : China, Mexico, Vietnam (as an EU bloc), Japan, South Korea, Canada, India, Thailand, Switzerland, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, and South Africa.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) requested public comments regarding reciprocal tariffs. It was particularly interested in receiving submissions from the United States' largest trading partners and those countries with the highest surpluses on goods.

USTR listed Argentina, Australia Brazil Canada China Europe, India, Indonesia Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Russia Saudi Arabia South Africa Switzerland Taiwan Thailand Turkey U.K. Vietnam and the European Union as countries of special interest. They added that these countries account for 88% of the total U.S. goods trade.

(source: Reuters)