EU ‘fully invested’ in Trump trade talks after US court ruling

BRUSSELS: The EU is “fully invested” in reaching a deal with the United States to avoid sweeping tariffs, the bloc’s trade chief said on Friday, after US judges ruled the controversial measures were unconstitutional.

“Delivering forward-looking solutions remains a top EU priority. Staying in permanent contact,” EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on X after a call Thursday with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Sefcovic could meet his US trade counterparts in Paris next week on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an EU official said.

Sefcovic, however, did not make any comment on the court drama across the Atlantic.In a ruling Wednesday, the US Court of International Trade had barred most of the tariffs announced since President Donald Trump took office, but an appeals court the next day preserved his sweeping import duties on China and other trading partners.

The short-term relief will now allow the appeals process to proceed.Sefcovic has previously said he had calls with his US trade counterparts on Friday, Saturday and Monday as the two sides intensify talks after last week’s tensions.

Trump threatened last Friday, but then postponed, to hit EU goods with a huge tariff, voicing frustration that talks with the EU were “going nowhere”.The US president had already hit the bloc with multiple waves of tariffs, including 25-per cent duties on cars, steel and aluminium.The European Commission has been leading negotiations on behalf of the 27-country bloc in search of a mutually beneficial deal with the United States.