By Julia Payne and Philip Blenkinsop<\/p>\n
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union braced on Friday to receive a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump, outlining planned duties on his largest trade and investment partner after a broadening of his tariff war in recent days.<\/p>\n
The EU initially hoped to strike a comprehensive trade agreement, including zero-for-zero tariffs on industrial goods, but months of difficult talks have led to the realisation it will probably have to settle for an interim agreement and hope something better can still be negotiated.<\/p>\n
The 27-country bloc is under conflicting pressures as powerhouse Germany urged a quick deal to safeguard its industry, while other EU members such as France have said EU negotiators should not cave into a one-sided deal on U.S. terms.<\/p>\n
After keeping much of the world guessing on his intentions, Trump has outlined new tariffs for a number of countries, including allies Japan and South Korea, along with a 50% tariff on copper, and a hike to 35% on Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would need a crystal ball to detect what the U.S. intentions are,\u201d an EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Another source with knowledge of the U.S.-EU negotiations said an agreement was close, but that it was hard to predict if the EU might still get a letter announcing more tariffs or when any agreement might be finalised.<\/p>\n
One European industry lobbyist said it was nearly impossible to anticipate Trump\u2019s thinking. \u201cIt\u2019s policy by Truth Social,\u201d the lobbyist said, referring to Trump\u2019s social media platform.<\/p>\n
European shares dipped on Friday as investors awaited word on tariffs for the EU.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EU has been negotiating with the U.S. about the sector tariffs and also about the reciprocal tariffs\u2026everybody was expecting that there would be a better trade deal coming, but now it looks like it will be a worse outcome,\u201d said Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.<\/p>\n
Stanzl added a rally on Germany\u2019s DAX reflected hopes of a better trade deal with the United States, but that the tariffs on Canada, despite weeks of talks, had cast some doubt on whether it could be achieved.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, as the two powers vied to push their agendas in Asia as tension simmers over Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n
Rubio said the meeting was \u201cvery constructive,\u201d while adding the two sides had issues to resolve.<\/p>\n
China this week warned the United States against reinstating hefty levies on its goods next month and Beijing has also threatened to retaliate against nations that strike deals with the United States to cut China out of supply chains.<\/p>\n
TRUMP VERSUS THE EU<\/p>\n
Trump has periodically railed against the EU, saying in February that it was \u201cformed to screw the United States\u201d and asking why Europe exports so many cars but buys so few from the U.S. in return.<\/p>\n
His biggest grievance is the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with the EU, which in 2024 amounted to $235 billion, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The EU has repeatedly pointed to the U.S. surplus in services that in part redresses the balance.<\/p>\n
The potential escalation between the EU and the U.S. is a big deal for financial markets, said Joseph Capurso, head of international economics at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. \u201cIf you get something similar to (the U.S.-China trade war in April), that\u2019s going to be very destabilising.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview with NBC News published on Thursday, Trump said other trading partners that had not yet received such letters would likely face blanket tariffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everybody has to get a letter. You know that. We\u2019re just setting our tariffs,\u201d Trump said in the interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it\u2019s 20% or 15%. We\u2019ll work that out now,\u201d Trump was quoted as saying by the network.<\/p>\n
(Writing by Matthias Williams; Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Julia Payne; editing by Barbara Lewis)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Julia Payne and Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union braced on Friday to receive a letter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[28,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-1415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-markets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}