The US will cap tariffs on imports from the European Union at 15%, sparing the region of the higher duties President Donald Trump had threatened against pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
The framework deal, a follow up to a verbal agreement struck last month between Washington and Brussels, remains a compromise for Europe, though: Washington has agreed to lower levies on cars and parts only after the bloc takes steps to lift tariffs on all US industrial goods, a caveat that will likely frustrate Europe’s struggling automakers.
Negotiators had scrambled to solidify July’s handshake agreement, which faced backlash from within the bloc. One European lawmaker on Thursday criticized it as a “final capitulation to Trump.”
AD