The administration of American president Donald Trump concluded a trade agreement with the European Union on Sunday after the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen met Trump in Scotland, reported Reuters.
The agreement would see the EU shoulder a 15% rate on EU imports to the United States and on large-scale purchases of American energy and military equipment, depending on the point of sale. On July 11, Trump wrote to Von Der Leyen that the United States would take a 30% rate on EU imports, denouncing “long-term, persistent and important” trade deficits.
The two leaders met in Turnberry, Scotland, according to a video of the White House of the two during a press conference there.
The EU would not impose prices on American products entering the market of the supranational entity, in the words of the New Deal, said Trump, according to NBC News.
Questioned by a journalist if he could offer the EU less than 15%, Trump said no. Europe had hoped for an agreement without any tariff imposed by both parties, but European companies would probably host the agreement, according to Reuters.
Trump said the United States had had an excellent relationship with the EU “but that it was a very unilateral transaction, very unfair to the United States.”
The United States and the EU are the two largest world economies with a commercial volume of $ 1.7 Billion of dollars between the two economies and a combined market of 800 million people, Von Der Leyen told journalists. It expressed optimism that the new trade agreement, in the event of success, would be the greatest case that each entity has ever concluded. (Related: Howard Lungick reveals how Trump’s administrator obtained a massive trade agreement with Japan)
According to Livestream, Trump entered the meeting. “I think the main bonding point is equity,” he said.
The agreement would concern rebalancing, said Von Der Leyen. “We have a surplus, the United States has a deficit and we have to rebalance it,” she added.
The American trade deficit with the EU rose to nearly $ 236 billion in 2024, according to US Census Bureau. It amounted to just over 137.3 billion dollars between January and May 2025, against $ 92,482.7 in the same period in 2024, according to data.
The EU market is closed to American cars while the United States imports millions of EU cars, according to Trump. While the United States imported 749,170 EU cars in 2024, the EU imported 164,857 cars in the United States, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Trump praised Von der Leyen for having “done a great job for them [the E.U.] – Not for us – but she did an excellent job and she is also very respected by us.
