No carve-outs
The EU has been hit by multiple waves of tariffs since Trump reclaimed the White House. It is currently subject to a 25-percent levy on cars, 50 percent on steel and aluminium, and an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent, which Washington threatens to hike to 30 percent in a no-deal scenario.
Brussels has been focused on getting a deal to avoid sweeping tariffs that would further harm its sluggish economy — with retaliation held out as a last resort.
But the deal as outlined by Trump appeared to fall short of EU expectations.
The bloc had been pushing hard for tariff carve-outs for critical industries from aircraft to spirits, and its auto industry, crucial for France and Germany, is already reeling from the levies imposed so far.
Any deal will also need to be approved by EU member states — whose ambassadors, on a visit to Greenland, were updated by the commission Sunday morning. They were set to meet again after the deal struck in Scotland.
Trump said pharmaceuticals — a key export for Ireland, which the bloc has lobbied to shield — “won’t be part of” any deal.
“We have to have them built, made in the United States,” the president said. This month, Trump suggested the possibility of a 200-percent tariff on drugs imported into the United States, which would deal a crushing blow to the sector in Europe.
The EU had also hoped for a compromise on steel that could allow a certain quota into the United States before tariffs would apply, but Trump ruled that out, saying steel was “staying the way it is”.