In early April, Trump had set a 90-day window for trade talks for the EU and the US which was to end on July 9
Updated 26 May 2025
Reuters
MORRISTOWN, New Jersey: US President Donald Trump on Sunday backed off his threat to speed up 50 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union, agreeing to extend his deadline for trade talks until July 9 after the head of the EU executive body said the bloc needed more time to “reach a good deal.”
Trump threatened on Friday to intensify his trade war after expressing frustrations that trade talks were not moving quickly enough, saying he wanted steep new import taxes to start on June 1. The threat roiled global markets.
Trump relented after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told him during a phone call that the EU needed more time to come to an agreement and asked him to delay the tariffs until July, the deadline he had originally set when he announced new tariffs in April.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that he had granted the request. He said that von der Leyen told him “we will rapidly get together to see if we can work something out.” Von der Leyen said in a social media post that the EU was ready to move quickly in trade talks.
Von der Leyen said in a post on X on Sunday that she had a “good” phone call with Trump.
In early April, Trump had set a 90-day window for trade talks for the EU and the US which was to end on July 9.
Zelensky blasts EU's lack of political will against Putin
Ukrainian president says he reached agreement with Trump around post-war US security guarantees for his country
In a fiery speech, he slammed his main political backers in Europe over their 'inaction'
Updated 5 sec ago
AFP
DAVOS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday blasted the EU’s lack of “political will” in countering Russian leader Vladimir Putin, in a fiery address criticizing some of Kyiv’s top allies at the World Economic Forum. The speech to the Davos elite came minutes after Zelensky had met with US President Donald Trump, a conversation he said had brought agreement about what post-war US security guarantees for Ukraine would look like. Zelensky did not say what they included, only that they were “done” and were ready to be signed by the leaders and ratified by the Ukrainian parliament and US Congress. But in a marked departure from his usual warm rhetoric toward the European Union, Kyiv’s main political and financial backers, Zelensky slammed what he cast as inaction. “What’s missing: time or political will?” he said at one point, referencing delays over the establishment of a European war crimes tribunal on the Russian invasion. He also said Europe, without mentioning any single country, was failing to agree on how to address global problems. “There are endless internal arguments and things left unsaid that stop Europe from uniting and speaking honestly enough to find real solutions,” Zelensky told the forum. “Instead of becoming a truly global power, Europe remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers,” he added.
Fresh talks
“Europe looks lost trying to convince the US President to change,” said Zelensky. “But he will not change. President Trump loves who he is, and he says he loves Europe, but he will not listen to this kind of Europe,” he said. Trump had hailed a “good” meeting with Zelensky in the Swiss ski resort, hours before his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were due in Moscow for talks with Putin. “This war has to end,” Trump told reporters including AFP when asked what message he was sending to the Russian leader. Zelensky said the question of territory was the one outstanding issue in the talks to find an end to the war. “It’s all about the eastern part of our country. It’s all about the land. This is the issue which we (have) not solved yet.” He also said the United Arab Emirates would host “trilateral” talks on the Ukraine war Friday and Saturday with Ukrainian, US and Russian negotiators. “It will be the first trilateral meeting in the Emirates,” said Zelensky, without elaborating on the format of the talks. “Russians have to be ready for compromises,” he added. Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine, is pushing for full control of the country’s eastern Donbas region as part of a deal — but Kyiv has warned ceding ground will embolden Moscow.
