New US-EU Trade Deal Reduces Incoming Tariffs to 15%

The United States and the European Union have finally agreed to a trade deal, preventing an economically-devastating trade war from taking place.

The agreement has been made in one of the toughest times for relations between the two superpowers, as US President Donald Trump had planned to impose a major round of new tariffs beginning on August 1. Previously, those tariffs had been set for 30% on the EU, with Trump threatening to further raise them to 50%, and he had also been considering pulling out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) altogether.

However, after months of negotiations, the two have finally settled on a compromise. The EU was aware that Trump would refuse to remove the tariffs completely-- as a result, they aimed to bring them down to a widespread 10% baseline tax. While the US refused to lower them to 10%, a middle ground was reached yesterday, with both sides deciding on 15%.

Nevertheless, the United States has placed some conditions on the settlement, which the EU has accepted. According to the EU, they are required to spend at least $750 billion on American energy over the next three years, and Trump has confirmed that they have also agreed to increase their investment in the US by $600 billion.

Additionally, several items will have tariff exceptions as well-- aircraft and plane parts, various items in the pharmaceutical industry, semiconductors, some chemicals, and other products will see their tariffs removed completely, while steel and aluminum will still face a 50% tariff.

The exact details of the agreement have not been finalized yet, but the general consensus on a fixed tariff rate has shown that the deeply-interwoven relations between the US and the EU seem to be improving, giving hope for a brighter future on the military, economic, and political fronts and diminishing the growing worries of an impending trade war.

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