European Union Continues to Move Towards Trump Trade Deal with Pause on Metals Tariffs

The European Union has suspended its announced retaliatory tariffs against the United States in favour of negotiating a deal, saying it has “taken note” of Trump’s tariff pause on every country except China.

“We want to give negotiations a chance”, said the head of the European Commission on Thursday as she mirrored President Donald Trump’s move to suspend tariffs worldwide except for trade war-minded China.

The European Union only passed its “retaliatory duties” on Wednesday afternoon, a response to Donald Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs, which had been watered down from earlier proposals and came in at only a fraction of what the U.S. proposed to impose. Now just hours later even that mild response has been suspended, with Ursula von der Leyen saying “we took note of the announcement by President Trump” and saying they would put their measures “on hold for 90 days”.

This is to allow negotiations for a trade deal to take place and if successful the EU’s tariff boost — of course the Union already has a broad network of tariffs and other trade barriers to protect its domestic market which have been in place for many years — would be cancelled altogether.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a press conference with Norway’s Prime Minister at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels on April 7, 2025. (Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP) (Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images)

Von der Leyen, once best known as Angela Merkel’s blundering defence minister but who successfully fell upwards into the top European Commission job, nevertheless signalled a desire to appear tough as she fell in line with President Trump. Indeed, she warned today that “preparatory work on further countermeasures continues… all options remain on the table”.

President Trump, for his part, hasn’t been shy in revealing that countries worldwide have been beating a path to his door for talks since he announced the now-suspended global reciprocal tariff scheme, and the European Union is one of those powers. Behind the somewhat belligerent rhetoric and toe-dipping in trade war seen in public, behind closed doors the bloc is working for a deal with the United States.

But as expressed by Trump, the early movers will reap the greatest rewards on deals and more agile countries like the United Kingdom or Japan seem set to get an agreement inked first. While the European Union may be genuine in its wish to engage with Washington on its mission to rebuild the global trade settlement, the sclerotic Union’s fundamental handicaps, like its lack of agility will inevitably slow progress.