EU tweaks list of trade offerings to Trump administration 

The European Commission has responded to the U.S. administration with a newly tweaked list of concessions it is willing to offer to avert a transatlantic trade war, an EU diplomat and two EU officials told POLITICO on Monday.

The new document comes in response to a first letter sent last week by the Donald Trump administration aimed at laying out principles for negotiations — which marked the first concrete engagement from Washington.

It aims to boost purchases in strategic sectors, such as energy, as well as developing cooperation on 5G and 6G mobile networks, the diplomats said. It would also ramp up strategic cooperation in sensitive sectors that have undergone trade investigations resulting in U.S. tariffs, such as steel and aluminum, semiconductors and cars.

The new term sheet from the European Commission runs to 11 pages and 7 chapters, the officials said, and includes offers on tariffs and non-tariff barriers, as well as on economic security and investments.

Although he didn’t confirm the existence of the letter last week, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič did say the European Union was looking to team up with the U.S. to tackle overcapacity in the steel sector, reduce dependencies on critical minerals, and further cooperate on sensitive technologies such as AI and chips.

“There are areas where we are absolutely convinced that we can achieve much better results if we would address them jointly as allies,” Šefčovič told a press conference after a meeting of the EU’s trade ministers on Thursday.

The exchange of documents paves the way to a negotiated solution between Brussels and Washington, as time is running thin before a temporary truce on the tariffs Trump imposed on April 2 lapses early July. 

On top of a 10 percent tariff, Washington still imposes a 25 percent levy on cars as well as steel and aluminum — and with no solution by early July, a higher tariff of 20 percent would kick in on European goods. 

Šefčovič confirmed he had a “constructive” call last Wednesday with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and that he would meet with Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during an OECD meeting in Paris early June. 

A spokesperson for the European Commission declined to comment, adding that “technical and political level contact continues.” 

This story has been updated.