The European Union and United States have published a Joint Statement formalising last month’s tariff deal.
The EU had expected the statement to be published within days of the agreement on 27 July in Scotland. Instead, European Trade Commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, has been up “night and day” working towards getting the deal down on paper.
The Joint Statement offers a “blueprint and road map” for future EU-US relations, said an EU spokesperson.
Maroš Šefčovič called the agreement the basis for a “fair, balanced and mutually beneficial” trading relationship.
In reality EU exporters will now pay a 15 percent tariff on most products, a significantly worse situation than before Trump came into office, but better than his various threats at 20 or 30 percent tariffs on the EU.
“This is a serious, strategic deal”, said Šefčovič.
“The alternative, a trade war with sky high tariffs helps no one”, he added.
The Joint Statement is not a legally binding document, but the closest the EU was able to get from the United States.
EU-US trade is the biggest in the world, worth a total of €1.68 trillion including goods and services.
President Trump has always ignored services trade so the tariff agreement only concretely covers goods.
Tariffs of 15 percent will be applied retroactively to 1st August once the EU has everything in place, Šefčovič said.
Importantly for Ireland, the pharmaceutical industry will also face a 15 percent tariff following EU lobbying. There had been fears Trump would hit drugs companies with much higher tariffs.
“The 15 percent ceiling applies to nearly all EU exports previously subject to “reciprocal” tariffs. The ceiling will also apply to products that are currently or may be in the future subject to the US Section 232 [a United States method of using claims of national security to apply trade tariffs]…notably cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber”, the European Commission said.
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Harris TD, said confirmation of the 15 percent on pharma “provides an important shield to Irish exporters”.
Wines and spirits will also be subject to the 15 percent tariffs.
Šefčovič said he had failed to convince the Americans to exclude the industry from tariffs.
Industry association, Spirits Europe, said the tariff “places our products at a substantial competitive disadvantage, limits consumer choice, and undermines investment and growth in our sector on both sides of the Atlantic.”
The Joint Statement was published at 1pm Brussels time, 7am Washington time which might explain why the White House has so far not commented on the deal today.
“While the deal finally provides certainty we also are acutely aware of the impact of higher tariffs and the existing difficulties that many Irish exporters have already faced this year”, Simon Harris said.
“In that regard, we also must continue to control what we can control and continue to make our country, and our European Union, as competitive as possible, as good a location as possible to invest in and create jobs.
“We must also look for other opportunities to diversify markets for Irish business. While we want to continue to do business with the US and indeed want to grow business. It is important that we take every opportunity to identify new markets.”
When Ursula von der Leyen and Donald Trump met on Monday, both claimed they had made the biggest trade deal in the world.