With less than a week left for dozens of countries to negotiate trade deals with the Trump administration to avoid tariffs, some of America’s trading partners are in last-minute negotiations with the United States to stave off levies that could escalate a broader trade war.
One of the biggest meetings came in Scotland on Sunday, when President Trump met for trade talks with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm. Both parties agreed to a trade deal that sets a 15 percent tariff on most European goods, potentially avoiding a trade war that could have been damaging for both economies.
Ms. von der Leyen called it “the biggest trade deal ever,” while Mr. Trump said, “This is the biggest of them all.”
The European Union is, by some measures, America’s single most important trading partner, a bloc of 27 nations that collectively make up one of the world’s largest economies.
There are still many details left to work out after Sunday’s preliminary agreement. Separate negotiations are continuing this week on major details of the deal, including steel and aluminum tariffs.
Reactions in Europe have been varied, with some leaders voicing cautious support, while others called the deal unsatisfactory and lopsided.
Still, the preliminary deal avoids a worst-case scenario. Nearly every European Union country had voted to support retaliatory tariffs on American imports, which would have started on Aug. 7 if an agreement was not reached. The prospect of retaliation had spread fear among European company executives, who said countermeasures could spark a broader trade war and incite even higher U.S. tariffs.
Pressure to reach a trade deal has also intensified for South Korea, whose biggest rival in East Asia cut a deal with the United States last week. Mr. Trump celebrated the “massive” deal with Japan and its $550 billion investment in the United States.
South Korea’s trade and industry ministers were in Washington last week to try to match Japan’s deal. But a highly anticipated meeting on Friday with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, was canceled because of Mr. Bessent’s schedule.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Monday that South Korean officials flew to Scotland to discuss trade with him and Mr. Greer as the president secured the deal with the European Union.
“I mean, think about how much they really, really want to get a deal done,” Mr. Lutnick said on Fox News. “But the president is in the driver’s seat now. He’s done these big deals. He’s got really all the cards in front of him.”
Mr. Lutnick told Seoul officials in Scotland to bring their “best and final” trade offer to the table, according to Yonhap News. Before leaving for Washington on Tuesday, Koo Yun-cheol, South Korea’s finance minister, told reporters that he would discuss a mutually beneficial trade deal involving the country’s shipbuilding industry when he meets with Mr. Bessent this week, just days before Mr. Trump’s deadline.
Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter of coffee, also faces the possibility of steep tariffs if it does not reach an agreement with the United States by Friday. Brazil’s vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, is leading his country’s tariff negotiations and spoke with Mr. Lutnick by phone on Monday. Mr. Lutnick then signaled that imports of some natural products not plentiful in the United States, like coffee, could be exempt from tariffs — good news for Brazil.
Before leaving for Scotland on Friday, Mr. Trump remained optimistic about his self-imposed Aug. 1 deadline. “Most of the deals are finished right now,” he told reporters.
Mr. Trump announced last week that the Philippines and Indonesia agreed to 19 percent tariffs, while Australia said it would relax import restrictions on U.S. beef. Mr. Trump announced the move on Truth Social and warned that “other Countries that refuse our magnificent Beef are ON NOTICE.”
The Trump administration is still hashing out details of trade agreements that have already been made with some countries, including Britain and China.
Mr. Trump met with British prime minister, Keir Starmer, to do some “fine-tuning” of the deal as well as “a little celebrating” in Scotland.
Mr. Trump said in June that the United States and China had reached an agreement that would require China to loosen its restrictions on exports of critical minerals. But both countries are still working to hammer out other details of the deal.
Top officials from the United States and China agreed on Tuesday to continue discussions about extending a fragile trade truce that is set to expire in mid-August, but did not immediately reach an agreement to avert a potentially destabilizing trade war between the world’s largest economies.
Notably, one of the biggest U.S. trading partners isn’t rushing to solidify a deal before the deadline.
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said on Monday that Canada was engaged in “intense” negotiations with the United States but reiterated that his nation would agree only to terms that were in the best interest of Canadians, suggesting that the country might walk away empty-handed.
“The assurance for Canadian business, Canadians, is we will only sign a deal that is the right deal that’s a good deal for Canada,” he said.
Mr. Trump expressed the same skepticism that an agreement could be reached with Canada.
“We haven’t really had a lot of luck with Canada,” he said. “I think Canada could be one where there’s just a tariff, not really a negotiation.”
Ashley Ahn covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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