President Donald Trump announced a sweeping trade agreement with the European Union (EU) on Sunday, setting a baseline 15 percent tariff on European imports — including automobiles — while keeping existing 50 percent duties on steel and aluminum in place. As part of the deal, the EU committed to purchasing $750 billion in U.S. energy products.
Trump announced the agreement during a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after a private meeting at Trump Turnberry in Scotland.
The EU will purchase three-quarters of a trillion dollars in U.S. energy, while also investing $600 billion into America on top of existing investments. Additionally, EU countries will be setting tariffs on U.S. goods at zero percent, and Europe agreed “to purchase a vast amount of military equipment,” Trump said.
“We don’t know what that number is,” he said, but went on to note that the purchase of military equipment would be in the “hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Moreover, the EU will pay a 15 percent tariff rate to import products into the U.S., ranging from automobiles to other goods.
“So we have a tariff of 15% we have the opening up of all of the European countries, which I think I could say were essentially closed,” Trump said. “I mean, you weren’t exactly taking our orders, you weren’t exactly taking our agriculture, and then you would have smaller things, but for the most part, it was closed, and now it’s open.”
When asked about what concessions the U.S. would make to the EU, von der Leyen stressed this was about rebalancing the surplus Europe had and the deficit the U.S. had in the relationship.
“The starting point was an imbalance, a surplus on our side and a deficit on the U.S. side, and we wanted to rebalance the trade relation, and we wanted to do it in a way that trade goes on between the two of us across the Atlantic, because the two biggest economies should have a good trade flow between us,” she said.
“I think we hit exactly the point we wanted to find: Rebalance, but enable trade on both sides, which means good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, means prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, and that was important for us,” she said.
German broadcaster NTV suggested that the decision by Brussels to make concessions to Trump came as a result of pressure from EU member states, pointing to recent comments from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who pressed for a quick agreement. “It would be better to be quick and easy than lengthy and complicated and still in negotiating status for months,” Merz said.
In 2024, total trade between the U.S. and the EU in goods and services exceeded €1.68 trillion, or roughly $1.8 billion. This accounts for nearly 30 percent of global trade and 43 percent of the global gross domestic product, making it the world’s largest bilateral trading relationship.
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