Published on 02/06/2025 – 19:11 GMT+2•Updated
19:14

EU trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič will meet his US counterpart Ambassador Jamieson Greer on Wednesday on the sidelines of an OECD meeting in Paris following a high-level gathering of EU and US experts in Washington on Tuesday against rising tensions over US customs duties.

The Commission is hoping to rekindle negotiation with the US a week after EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US president Donald Trump spoke on the phone, despite Trump’s subsequent decision on 30 May to slap 50% tariffs on EU steel and aluminium.

“The EU in good faith paused its countermeasures on 14 April, to create space for continued negotiations, and following the call between president Ursula von der Leyen and president Donald Trump both sides agreed to accelerate the pace of talks,” Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said on Monday, acknowledging however that Trump’s last announcement on steel and aluminium undermined the Commission’s “ongoing efforts to reach a negotiated solution with the US”.

The Commission has suspended until 14 July a list of countermeasures targeting US products after Trump decided on a 90-Day pause in the trade dispute he launched against his partners across the globe. But the Commission could decide to move forward with those countermeasures, it said.

A second list of US product is also open to consultation from industry until 10 June, when EU member states will adopt them.

“If no mutually acceptable solution is reached, both the existing and the possible additional measures will automatically take effect on 14 July or earlier if circumstances require,“ Gill said.

Šefčovič has already travelled to Washington three times to meet with his US counterparts, but his efforts have so far failed to break the deadlock.

The US and the EU exchanged proposals to begin negotiations, but both sides have dismissed the other’s offers. It wasn’t until EU and US leaders spoke by phone that talks were able to move forward—until President Trump announced new tariffs on steel and aluminium at the end of last week, putting the negotiations at risk once again.

The US currently imposes 25% tariffs on EU steel and aluminium, 25% on cars and 10% on all EU imports. Several investigations in pharma, semiconductors or aircrafts could also lead to more US tariffs on EU goods.

China criticized U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday for his “vilified” remarks “filled with provocations” in which he said the Asian country poses a legitimate threat in the Indo-Pacific.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Hegseth touted a “Cold War mentality” when he delivered his speech on Saturday at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore.

“Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a ‘threat,’” a spokesperson for the ministry said in a statement.

“The remarks were filled with provocations and intended to sow discord,” the statement continued. “China deplores and firmly opposes them and has protested strongly to the U.S. No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the US itself, which is also the primary factor undermining the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.”

HEGSETH SAYS US WILL BOLSTER DEFENSES OVERSEAS TO SUPPORT INDO-PACIFIC ALLIES AGAINST CHINA

On Saturday, Hegseth said the U.S. will bolster its defenses overseas to counter what the Pentagon views as rapidly developing threats by China, particularly toward Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.

The Chinese army “is rehearsing for the real deal,” Hegseth said. “We are not going to sugarcoat it — the threat China poses is real. And it could be imminent.”

The Pentagon chief said China is no longer building up its military forces to take Taiwan, but it is “actively training for it, every day.”

Addressing the dispute over Taiwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in its statement that the matter is China’s internal affair and that the U.S. should “never play with fire.”

“No country is in a position to interfere,” the statement said. “The US should never imagine it could use the Taiwan question as leverage against China. The US must never play with fire on this question. China urges the US to fully abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, and stop supporting and emboldening the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”

HEGSETH DENIES CLAIM THAT GOLDEN DOME IS ‘OFFENSIVE’: ‘PROTECTING THE HOMELAND’

Hegseth said the U.S. will bolster its defenses overseas to counter what the Pentagon views as rapidly developing threats by China. (AP)

The statement also accused the U.S. of deploying offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and “stoking flames and creating tensions” in the Asia-Pacific, which it said was “turning the region into a powder keg and making countries in the region deeply concerned.”

In the South China Sea, the statement said there “has never been any problem with regard to freedom of navigation and overflight there.”

“China has always been committed to working with countries concerned to properly handle differences through dialogue and consultation, while safeguarding China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in accordance with laws and regulations,” the spokesperson said. “It is the U.S. that is the primary factor hurting the peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

The statement concluded: “China urges the U.S. to fully respect the efforts of countries in the region to maintain peace and stability, stop deliberately destroying the peaceful and stable environment cherished by the region, and stop inciting conflict and confrontation and escalating tensions in the region.”

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang also called Hegseth’s comments a provocation that distorted China’s policy positions.

Hegseth said the Chinese army “is rehearsing for the real deal” and the threat it poses could be imminent. (AP)

While Hegseth vowed to boost U.S. defenses overseas to counter any possible threat from China, the defense secretary insisted that allies in the Indo-Pacific also contribute more to their own defense.

“We ask, and indeed we insist, that our allies and partners do their part on defense,” he said on Saturday. “Sometimes that means having uncomfortable and tough conversations.”

The U.S. and China reached a deal last month to cut tariffs on each down to 115% for 90 days to allow time for negotiators from both sides to come to a more substantive agreement — U.S. tariffs on China were reduced from 145% to 30% and China’s taxes on the U.S. were slashed from 125% to 10%.

But Trump said in a social media post on Friday that he would no longer be “nice” with China when it comes to trade and accused Beijing of breaking an unspecified agreement with the U.S.