Taoiseach ‘hopeful’ of EU-US deal
Micheál Martin said both sides continue to negotiate the "fine detail" of future arrangements.It comes before a looming Wednesday deadline to make a new deal with the Trump administration, which piling pressure on trading partners by threatening dramatically increased tariffs from the existing 10pc rate.Speaking to the media after a phone call with the European Commission president, Mr Martin said Ursula von der Leyen outlined to him the "most up to date situation".Mr Martin said: "We remain hopeful that the US and the European Union can agree an outline agreement or framework principle agreement this week."There's still a number of issues to negotiated, nothing has been rejected, definitively."But what it does illustrate, though, that even if a framework agreement is arrived at, there would be a lot of negotiations subsequently.""So therefore, whilst it would create some degree of clarity in terms of where we are in the short term, there would still be a number of issues outstanding in respect of that trade issue between the European Union and the United States and indeed between other countries."Mr Martin said he supported the commission's position that an agreement should be reached to provide certainty to consumers, businesses and industry.Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 7th Asked if he expected a 10pc baseline tariff to remain in place, the Taoiseach said: "There are certain realities that probably will emerge from this that will have impact - and are having impact - on a number of sectors."But at least it gives us some sense of the landscape that we have to deal with."The EU is holding firm to a goal of doing a trade deal with US president Donald Trump by Wednesday, despite Washington’s last-minute decision to postpone a deadline to strike a deal on universal tariffs until August.“We’re working towards July 9 as the point where we want to have an agreement in principle at a minimum with the U.S.,” Olof Gill, the Commission’s trade spokesperson, told reporters today.The Trump administration said yesterday that it would push back a deadline for the return of its sweeping tariffs to August 1. Tariffs would then revert to their April 2 rates for countries that fail to nail down new US trade deals, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.(With additional reporting by Bart H. Meijer, Friederike Heine, Dmitry Antonov for Reuters)
