US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker have announced a series of joint steps to defuse an escalating row between the two trading blocs.
“We made a deal today,” Juncker told reporters following talks with Trump at the White House. “We have identified a number of areas on which to work together.”
Declaring a “new phase” in relations Trump said the US and EU agreed to “work together toward zero tariffs” on non-auto industrial goods, while the EU would import more American natural gas and soybeans.
He also said they would “resolve the steel and aluminum tariffs,” while Juncker said the sides would hold off on any new tariffs while talks proceed.
Trump has also decided to push back his next talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin until next year, after the US probe into Moscow’s election interference concludes, his national security advisor said today.
Trump’s summit with Putin in Helsinki on July 16 drew fierce criticism at home, but the White House had said plans were underway for a follow-up meeting in the fall in Washington.
White House National Security Advisor John Bolton, however, said that those talks will now not take place before 2019.
“The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we’ve agreed that it will be after the first of the year,” Bolton said.
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