US

EU Backs Down After Trump Tariff Threat

Screenshot/Fox News

Saagar Enjeti White House Correspondent
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The European Union has agreed to key trade concessions after President Donald Trump threatened to impose billions of dollars in tariffs on the bloc if they did not lower trade barriers, they announced Wednesday.

The U.S. and EU will now enter into negotiations over a wide-ranging array of the bilateral trading relationship. The EU made a key concession by agreeing to immediately increase U.S. imports of soybeans and enter into negotiations over industrial goods, liquified natural gas, steel, and other goods.

“We agreed first of all to work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods,” Trump declared, adding “the European union is going to start almost immediately to buy a lot of soy beans.”

European Union commission president Jean-Claude Juncker noted in the preface of his announcement that “when I was invited to the White House, I had one intention: I had the intention to make a deal today and we made a deal today.”

Trump last month threatened retaliatory tariffs on the EU auto industry.