WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he will give the European Union until July 4 to implement commitments under a bilateral trade agreement or face significantly higher tariffs on European goods, including automobiles.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he reached the new deadline during what he described as a “great call” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. He added that the two leaders also agreed that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon.
Trump said he had been waiting for the EU to fulfill its obligations under a trade agreement reached in Turnberry, Scotland, last July, which called for the bloc to eliminate tariffs on U.S. industrial goods and establish duty-free quotas for certain American agricultural and seafood products.
“I’ve been waiting patiently for the EU to fulfill their side of the Historic Trade Deal we agreed in Turnberry, Scotland,” Trump wrote. “A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO.”
He said he agreed to extend the deadline until the United States’ July 4 Independence Day celebrations, marking the country’s 250th anniversary, but warned that EU tariffs would otherwise “immediately jump to much higher levels.”
The warning follows Trump’s announcement last Friday that he would increase tariffs on EU vehicles to 25%, up from the previously agreed 15%, arguing that the bloc had failed to comply with the agreement.
Von der Leyen confirmed that she had spoken with Trump, saying the leaders discussed both security and trade issues.
“We also discussed the EU–U.S. trade deal,” she wrote on X. “We remain fully committed, on both sides, to its implementation. Good progress is being made towards tariff reduction by early July.”
Despite those assurances, European lawmakers acknowledged that work to implement the agreement remains incomplete.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, said negotiations among EU institutions and member states are advancing but “there is still some way to go,” citing differences over safeguards sought by several of the bloc’s 27 countries.
EU negotiators are scheduled to hold another round of talks on May 19.
Some lawmakers have proposed additional protections in the implementing legislation, including allowing the agreement to be suspended if the United States fails to meet its commitments, making tariff reductions conditional on U.S. actions, and ending the EU’s tariff concessions altogether on March 31, 2028.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Wednesday that the EU’s implementation of the agreement was “already past due” and suggested Washington could take additional measures beyond increasing automobile tariffs if the bloc does not comply.
“The autos is just one element,” Greer told Bloomberg Television. “There are other elements to the deal where the United States remains in full compliance in contrast to where the Europeans have been for many months.”
