The European Union is hoping for a rough draft of a trade deal with the United States this week, pushing frantically toward a resolution as other American trading partners receive letters threatening painfully high across-the-board tariffs.
President Trump suggested on Tuesday that he could send such a letter to the European Union this week, even as he acknowledged progress in their negotiations.
But Olof Gill, a spokesman for the E.U.’s executive arm, said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that it was his “understanding” that the 27-nation bloc will not receive a simple White House decree informing them of its tariff rate.
Instead, European officials have been working toward a bare-bones deal that can then be fleshed out.
“We are looking for a clear framework from which we can keep building,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the E.U.’s executive branch, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday morning.
Maros Sefcovic, the bloc’s main trade negotiator, had a call with Howard Lutnick, the U.S. commerce secretary, on Tuesday, and was scheduled to speak to the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, on Wednesday evening, Mr. Gill said. The E.U. is now in “the most sensitive phase of negotiations,” he said, adding that the goal was to have an agreement “as quickly as possible,” ideally in the coming days.
Mr. Trump had seemed to call that quick resolution into question on Tuesday.
“They’re very tough, but now they’re being very nice to us, and we’ll see what happens,” he said of the Europeans. “We’re probably two days off from sending them a letter.”
He then added, “A letter means a deal.”
The comments sowed confusion in Brussels on Wednesday, though officials were still hoping to avoid a broad-brush missive.
Even if a negotiated agreement is reached, Europe is likely to feel economic pain.
Any agreement is expected to include at least a 10 percent base line tariff, with some carve-outs for critical products like Airbus airplanes. Negotiators have been pushing for exemptions on sector-specific tariffs on products including cars and metals, but those details have been fluid.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that he wanted to eventually raise tariffs on pharmaceuticals — Europe’s largest export to the United States — to 200 percent, and said that tariffs on copper and other products were coming soon.
European countries including Germany have been pushing for a rapid deal that forestalls worse outcomes and ends months of paralyzing uncertainty. Germany’s large auto sector has been particularly suffering.
“We would like to have an understanding quite soon” because sectorial tariffs “are really harming us,” Bernd Lange, a member of the European Parliament from Germany, said on Wednesday.
Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade.
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