Doubled US tariffs on steel, aluminium kick in as deadline for 'best offers' hits
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Doubled US tariffs on steel, aluminium kick in as deadline for 'best offers' hits
PARIS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trade talks between the United States and European Union advanced quickly on Wednesday, representatives said, as new U.S. metals tariffs triggered another disruption in the global economy and added urgency to the negotiations.
President Donald Trump's doubling of tariffs on steel and aluminium imports kicked in on Wednesday, the same day his administration sought "best offers" from trading partners to avoid other punishing import levies from taking effect in July.
The 27-nation EU's trade negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said their meeting in Paris was constructive.
"We both concluded that we are advancing in the right direction, at pace," Sefcovic told reporters. Technical talks were ongoing in Washington, he said, and high-level contacts will follow.
"What makes me optimistic is I see the progress ... the discussions are now very concrete," Sefcovic said.
Greer said the talks demonstrated "a willingness by the EU to work with us to find a concrete way forward to achieve reciprocal trade."
Trump has made charging U.S. importers tariffs on goods from foreign countries the central policy of his trade wars, which have severely disrupted global trade flows and roiled financial markets.
The Republican president has long been angered by the massive federal trade deficit, saying it was emblematic of how trading partners "take advantage" of the U.S. He sees tariffs as a tool to bring more manufacturing - and the jobs that go with that - back to the United States.
However, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday that U.S. economic output will fall as a result of Trump's new tariffs on foreign goods that were in place as of May 13.
In another sign of disruptions to global trade, concerns about the damage from China's restrictions on critical mineral exports deepened, with some European auto parts plants suspending output and German carmaker BMW warning that its supplier network was affected by shortages of rare earths.
Separately, Trump said early on Wednesday that Chinese President Xi Jinping is tough and "extremely hard to make a deal with," exposing frictions after the White House raised expectations for a long-awaited phone call between the two leaders this week over trade issues including critical minerals.
