BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The 15% tariff that European Union goods face when entering the United States is all-inclusive, unlike the deals some other countries have struck with Washington, a senior EU official said on Tuesday.
The tariff framework will apply broadly to EU exports, except for steel and aluminium, the official said. The 15% rate will also apply to cars and car parts, with no quotas or limits, he added.
“What we have obtained in our deal is the best available treatment,” the EU official told reporters, while adding that the 27-nation bloc was not celebrating the 15% rate, but that it considered it was a very good deal compared to others.
Tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors are currently zero, but if they rise as a result of a U.S. probe into imports of those products, they will not exceed the 15% ceiling.
Talks on a joint statement with the U.S. that will spell out more details are very advanced, with the text broadly ready, with the EU waiting for a response from Washington to finalise things, the official said. He declined to give a timeline for its release.
Discussions on steel are taking longer due to the need to address volume-related issues, he said.
The EU is also working to finalise a list of essential products that will be exempt from U.S. tariffs, a process the official said will take some time. The EU is trying to get as many products as possible into the list of tariffs exemption, at a zero-for-zero rate.
As part of the agreement, the EU will increase imports of U.S. bison meat.
EU exports of car and car parts to the U.S. currently face a 27.5% tariff. But in Scotland last month, the EU and U.S. President Donald Trump announced as part of the framework deal on trade that duties on cars and car parts would be reduced to 15%. The EU official said on Tuesday that he expected that to happen “very soon”.
“Again, I have to insist that we’re not celebrating this (trade deal). This is a sense of relief for us. No calls for celebration,” the official said.
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Julia Payne, Sudip Kar-Gupta; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Alison Williams)
