EU’s Trade Chief to Meet With US Officials as EU Braces for Tariff Showdown

The European Union’s trade leader is headed to Washington for face-to-face negotiations with the Trump administration, a spokesman for the economic bloc said. On July 16, EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic is scheduled to meet separately with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, European Commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill told reporters on Wednesday. The negotiations come as the United States and the EU are facing an Aug. 1 deadline to craft a new bilateral trade deal. On July 9, Sefcovic and other leaders of the EU expressed their hope that a deal could be reached within days. However, on July 12, President Donald Trump added a new component to the conversation when he announced on his Truth Social account that the United States will impose a 30 percent tariff on imports from the European Union starting on Aug. 1 if a trade agreement is not reached....