The EU and US are “deep” in negotiations over trade tariffs, says Ursula von der Leyen following a phone call with President Trump.
The two are due to take part in a G7 summit in Canada later.
That meeting is overshadowed by events in the Middle East, Ukraine and the economic fallout of Trump tariffs.
With just three weeks before the US tariff pause is due to expire, the President of the European Commission said detail negotiations are underway.
“I agreed with President Trump that we want to find a common solution until 9 July”, said von der Leyen, speaking from Canada.
“We are also working on lowering the trade barriers. This was the reason why we offered zero for zero, so zero tariffs for all industrial goods on both sides.
This should be over time the goal”, she said, in an apparent admission that the EU does not expect a US deal to cancel out tariffs straight away.
“We are deep, deep, now in the detailed negotiations”, she added.
Meanwhile the EU is continuing to prepare punishing counter tariffs against the US if no deal is done.
“We are consulting right now [on] the rebalancing list”, she said.
The European Commission has proposed €95 billion in retaliatory measures. The aim is that the damage is shared across EU member states including Ireland.
Each member state is lobbying to minimise that damage.
The President of the European Council, António Costa, said Europe was trying to build up its defences “to assume greater responsibility” and Trump tariffs would undermine that effort.
“This is not the right moment to create uncertainty on economics. It’s not the right moment to create problems on trade, because we need to strengthen our economic basis”, he said.