President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a trade agreement between the United States and the European Union on Sunday.
The declaration occurred only moments after the two spoke to the media, saying that the chances of reaching an agreement were around 50-50. Von der Leyen acknowledged that the discussions required significant effort, yet both leaders expressed satisfaction with the final outcome.
“We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight-across tariff of 15%,” Trump said.
“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. I mean, you weren’t exactly taking our orders. You weren’t exactly taking our agriculture,” he added, addressing von der Leyen.
Von der Leyen said Europe will also purchase $150 billion worth of U.S. energy as part of the deal, in addition to making $600 billion in other investments into the U.S.
Some of the topline details about the trade deal can be seen below:
— An agreement to open up trade at 0% tariff
— EU to buy up to $750 billion of US energy
— EU to purchase “vast amounts” of US auto
— Tariffs on automobiles reduced to 15%
The deal is so good for the United States that liberals in America and even those in Europe are admitting that Trump got exactly what he wanted.
Former Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland praised the significance of the deal and how it will “screw” Russia.
“Well, when I served as ambassador, we were trying desperately to get Europe to abandon Nord Stream 2 and buy energy from us. And, you know, back then, they were hooked on cheap Russian gas. They didn‘t think that Russia posed a threat to Europe. Look how a few years have changed things. So now they don‘t want to buy from Russia. They want to buy from the U.S.,” Sondland said.
“The E.U. knew they had to do something like this. They realized that now President Trump has the mandate to push it. He did not have the mandate in his first term because he was fighting a lot of impeachments and other things that didn‘t give him the, you know, the power to do what he‘s done now. So I think all the whining and complaining is for public consumption, but at the end of the day, we‘re very close to the E.U.. We do a lot of things together, both public and classified, and, you know, this is — whatever, you know, sore feelings there are over this negotiation are a small bump in the road and now we can move forward. I think this is a tremendous day for the United States. And I have to credit President Trump,” he added.
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny claimed that the European Union’s trade deal with the United States “is a message that it’s better to do so rather than face a trade war.”
“We do know that China, of course, is one of the countries that there have been an on again/off again trade war. There‘s been a truce since May, but that expires on August 12th. So the question tomorrow, when Treasury secretary Scott Bessent meets with his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm, will there be an extension to that truce or will there be going back to the on again/off again, tit-for-tat trade war between Washington and Beijing? That is very much an open question.” Zeleny said.
“But the deal today reached with the EU certainly sends a message out to all other countries who have not yet signed deals that perhaps it‘s better to try and do so, rather than to face the threat of what the Trump Administration is proposing,” Zeleny added.
MSNBC’s Elise Jordan took a more pathetic route and said she wished that the European Union would have played “cat and mouse a little bit” on the trade deal with Trump.
“Yeah, because it’s a moment when the EU could have played with him a little bit, you know, cat and mouse a little bit. They have more leverage than, you know, giving in this quickly,” Jordan whined.