EU trade chief meets with Trump officials to try to head off 'harmful' tariffs

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The European Union's trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic was due to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump's top trade officials on Tuesday to try to avoid steep U.S. tariffs on EU goods as early as next week.

Sefcovic had two previous discussions with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that have yet to alter Trump's plans to raise U.S. import duties to match the rates charged by major trading partners and counteract their non-tariff trade barriers.

USTR and the EU's Washington delegation office had no immediate comment on the discussions.

The meetings come as some countries are preparing tariff concessions ahead of Trump's April 2 announcement of the reciprocal tariff plan, a day he has dubbed "Liberation Day" for the U.S. economy from unfair trade practices.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that India is open to cutting tariffs on more than half of U.S. imports, valued at $23 billion, in the first phase. India has among the highest trade-weighted average tariff rates at 12.1%, compared to 2.5% for the U.S., according to the World Trade Organization.

A U.S. delegation led by Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Brendan Lynch is in New Delhi this week for trade talks with Indian officials from Tuesday through Saturday, the U.S. embassy in New Delhi said.

Trump said on Monday he may give "a lot of countries" breaks on tariffs, but provided no details. Trump also said that separate tariffs on autos, pharmaceuticals and aluminum were coming in "the very near future."

EU officials have struggled to talk Trump back from a trade war as he embarks on a multi-front tariff offensive expected to draw strong retaliatory measures. Sefcovic said last week that little progress has been made in talks with Washington after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this month.

"They will discuss much of the same issues they've been discussing for the past few weeks, which is EU-U.S. trade relations, and from our perspective, why we should be making every effort on both sides to avoid harmful tariffs and build rather than tear down the EU-U.S. trade and economic relationship, which is the strongest in the world," European Commission spokesman Olof Gill told reporters on Monday.

Sefcovic has said that the EU was willing to discuss reducing automotive tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic, including the EU's 10% car tariff and the U.S. 25% truck tariff.

NO RUSH FOR CANADA

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters in Halifax that Canada was prepared to add retaliatory trade measures against the U.S., depending on Trump's April 2 trade actions. Trump has also threatened to end a month-long tariff reprieve for goods compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.

But Carney said that Canada was not rushing to the negotiating table with Trump, with whom he has not spoken since taking office, adding that he wants "substantive discussions" between sovereign nations -- a reference to Trump's frequent demands that Canada should be annexed by the U.S.

"We're not rushing to the table to take something," Carney said. "Serious discussions, sovereign nation to sovereign nation, comprehensive 'Canada strong' against America as equals, and that's when we will get the best deal for Canada."

CAUTION ON RELIEF

But White House officials have cautioned that countries rushing for early tariff relief were unlikely to avoid them completely, because Trump's reciprocal duty calculations will include non-tariff barriers, currency policies and other factors that are harder to roll back.

The EU will delay its first set of counter-measures tomid-April, including a 50% tariff on U.S. bourbon. In response,Trump threatened to slap a 200% tariff on all wines and otheralcoholic products from the EU if the bloc imposes retaliatory tariffs.

Trump officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have said that much of the reciprocal tariff focus will be on 15 countries that have the highest goods trade surpluses with the U.S. Bessent has referred to these partners as the "Dirty 15."

They did not name these, but according to U.S. Census Bureau data, the following trade partners had the largest trade surpluses with the U.S.: China, the EU (as a bloc), Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Canada, India, Thailand, Switzerland, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and South Africa.

In a request for public comments on reciprocal tariffs, the Office of the United States Trade Representative expressed particular interest in submissions for the largest U.S. trade partners, and those with the highest goods trade surpluses.

USTR named Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, U.K. and Vietnam as being of particular interest, adding that they cover 88% of total goods trade with the U.S.

(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Julia Payne in Brussels; additional reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Sarita Chaganti Singh, Aftab Ahmed and Manoj Kumar in New Delhi; Editing by Aurora Ellis)