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EU and US accelerate trade negotiations after phone call between Trump and von der Leyen

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After weeks of deadlock, US president announces relaunch of contacts: ‘Europe must open up to trade with us’. Brussels confirms new impetus, but Lagarde criticises the tone used by Trump

Trade negotiations between the United States and the European Union are entering a new phase. US President Donald Trump announced that he had been contacted by Brussels to urgently arrange new meetings: ‘This is a positive event,’ he wrote on Truth Social. ‘I hope that, as with China, European nations will also open up to trade with the United States. We will both be happy and successful if they do’.

Trump claimed the 50 per cent tariffs imposed on the EU, calling previous talks ‘slow, to put it mildly’. He added: ‘Remember, I have the power to fix a trade deal if we don’t come to an understanding or if we are treated unfairly.’

The turning point came in a phone call between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The two leaders, according to reports from Brussels, ‘basically agreed to accelerate negotiations’ and ‘to stay in close contact’.

European executive spokeswoman Paula Pinho confirmed that ‘these are the largest and most complex trade relations in the world’ and that the timeframe had lengthened, but now ‘there is new impetus also at the presidential level’.

The talks will resume in the afternoon with a video conference between the European Commissioners and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic spoke of ‘good talks’ and assured that Brussels ‘remains fully committed to constructive efforts to reach an agreement’.

There was no shortage of controversy. ECB President Christine Lagarde called the language used by Trump, who had claimed that the EU was created to ‘harm the United States’, ‘terrible’. Lagarde replied: ‘This is a counterintuitive and historically unfounded statement. The US supported the birth of the EU’.

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