Trump agrees to delay EU tariffs until July

US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday, the 25th of May, that he is giving the European Union (EU) more time to reach an agreement and avoid the planned 50% tariffs. The new deadline is the 9th of July, reports Politico.
Trump made the announcement after a telephone conversation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
On Friday, he announced that the tariffs would come into force at the beginning of June and called EU trade unfair.
“We had a very nice conversation and I agreed to postpone it,” Trump said before returning to Washington after a weekend in New Jersey. “She said we would meet quickly and see if we could work something out.”
“I agreed to extend the deadline to the 9th of July 2025 – it was my privilege to do so. The Commission President said negotiations would start quickly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Currently, the EU is subject to a 10% tariff rate, like other countries.Von der Leyen said on Sunday that they had a “good conversation” but that the EU would need until July to reach a good deal with Trump. She shared the optimism of pushing the negotiations forward to meet the deadline.
“The EU and the US have the world’s most important and closest trading relationship,” she wrote on X. “Europe is ready to move the negotiations forward quickly and decisively.”
In recent days, the EU has taken a tougher line when discussing the progress of negotiations with the US President.
The European Commission “remains ready to work in good faith. EU-US trade is incomparable and must be built on mutual respect, not threats. We are ready to defend our interests,” EU Trade Chief Maroš Šefčovič said on social media on Friday after talks with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Brussels expected Friday’s talks to discuss the latest EU offers it sent last week and to receive a response on a possible meeting between Šefčovič and Greer, scheduled for early June in Paris. But Trump’s latest threats have cooled the prospects for a fruitful discussion.
Following the extension, the euro and the US dollar appreciated against the yen and the Swiss franc, which are considered safer currencies.