President Donald Trump has seen some trade deal offers and thinks they need to be better, White House Economic Adviser Kevin Hassett said on Sunday, adding that Trump will proceed with threatened tariffs on Mexico, the European Union and other countries if they don’t improve.
"Well, these tariffs are real if the President doesn’t get a deal that he thinks is good enough," Hassett told ABC’s This Week program. "But you know, conversations are ongoing, and we’ll see where the dust settles."
Hassett told ABC’s "This Week" program that Trump’s threatened 50% tariff on goods from Brazil reflect Trump’s frustration with the South American country’s actions as well as its trade negotiations with the U.S.
The European Union will suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month.
″This is now the time for negotiations,″ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday, after President Trump sent a letter announcing new tariffs of 30% on goods from the EU and Mexico starting Aug. 1.
The EU — America’s biggest trading partner and the world’s largest trading bloc — had been scheduled to impose ″countermeasures″ starting Monday at midnight Brussels time (6 p.m. EDT; 22:00 GMT). The EU negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries.
Von der Leyen said those countermeasures would be delayed until Aug. 1, and that Trump’s letter shows ″that we have until the first of August″ to negotiate.
″We have always been clear that we prefer a negotiated solution,″ she said. If they can’t reach a deal, she said that ″we will continue to prepare countermeasures so we are fully prepared.″
Europe’s biggest exports to the U.S. are pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments and wine and spirits.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was heading to Washington for talks Monday with the U.S. administration and Congress. In a statement, Tajani’s office said that in his talks with EU allies before the meetings, he stressed the need to “negotiate with one’s head held high.”
The right-wing government of Premier Giorgia Meloni, the only EU leader to attend Trump’s inauguration, has sought to position itself as a “ bridge” between Brussels and Washington.
Source:
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/tariffs/2025/07/13/id/1218585/