ROME (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President JD Vance met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Sunday, and said he hoped their encounter would help move forward trade talks between the EU and the United States.
Von der Leyen later said she was confident a solution to transatlantic trade tensions could be found.
“Europe is an important ally of the United States… but, of course, we have some disagreements, as friends sometimes do, on issues like trade,” Vance said, sitting alongside von der Leyen and Meloni in Rome after they had all attended Pope Leo’s inaugural Mass.
“I think we’ll have a great conversation, and hopefully it will be the beginning of some long-term trade negotiations and some long-term trade advantages between both Europe and the United States,” he added.
The White House has imposed a 25% tariff on imports of steel, aluminium and cars, as well as a baseline 10% tariff on almost all countries, with additional “reciprocal” tariffs — making for a combined 20% in the EU’s case — lined up if negotiations during a 90-day pause fail.
Von der Leyen said the EU-US trade relationship was the largest in the world and worth more than $1.5 trillion a year and added that the two sides had exchanged papers outlining the various areas of future discussion.
“We both want a good deal that delivers for people and business on both sides of the Atlantic. Our teams are working around the clock to find solutions. We’re confident that we will get there,” the EU executive chief wrote in a post on X.
Earlier, she said that experts were discussing the details.
“Everybody knows that the devil is in the detail, but what unites us is that at the end, we want together to have a good deal for both sides,” she said before her talks with Vance.
Von der Leyen has not managed to hold a formal meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump since he regained the U.S. presidency in January, exchanging words only briefly at Pope Francis’s funeral last month at the Vatican.
Besides discussing tariffs, she said she also wanted to talk to Vance about Ukraine and defence spending.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Editing by Gareth Jones and Diane Craft)
