U.S. President Donald Trump will finalize his trade decisions this week, while parallel negotiations with China and the European Union are still underway, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday, referring to Trump’s August 1 deadline.
U.S. and EU officials were still discussing steel and aluminum tariffs as well as digital services regulations following their framework announced on Sunday, Lutnick told CNBC in an interview, adding that talks with China were also “their own thing”.
“But for the rest of the world, we’re going to have things done by Friday,” he said in the interview.
Asked about remaining uncertainties surrounding the U.S.-EU agreement, Lutnick said Trump was working “to get things done now.”
He said pharmaceuticals were a key part of the EU deal so that medicines made in European countries—home to several major drugmakers—would see their products included in the 15% tariff.
“It was important for them to have pharmaceuticals be part of the deal at 15% because President Trump is going to come out in the next two weeks with his pharmaceutical policy, and it is going to be higher,” he said.
U.S. – China Negotiations
Meanwhile, U.S. and Chinese officials began a second day of talks in Stockholm on Tuesday to resolve longstanding economic disputes and step back from an escalating trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
The meetings may not yield immediate large breakthroughs but the two sides could agree to another 90-day extension of a tariff truce struck in mid-May. It may also pave the way for a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the year, though Trump on Tuesday denied going out of his way to seek one.
China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable trade agreement with Trump’s administration, after reaching preliminary deals in May and June to end weeks of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals.
(With inputs from Reuters)
