Trump says EU not offering fair trade deal, Japan being ‘tough’ too

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on June 17 said Japan was being “tough” in trade talks and the European Union had not yet offered what he considered a fair deal, as a team led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stayed at the G-7 meeting in Canada to keep working on trade issues after Mr Trump’s abrupt early departure.

Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the EU would need to offer Washington “a good deal” or face higher tariffs.

Mr Trump spoke after leaving the Group of Seven (G-7) summit early, in order to focus on the Middle East.

He told reporters Mr Bessent was staying on in Kananaskis, Alberta, to keep talking with counterparts on trade.

White House officials said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett also remained in Canada and would be meeting with their counterparts. They said Mr Trump met informally with all G-7 members, but had not seen the leaders of India, Australia or Mexico, who were also slated to meet him in Canada this week.

“We’re talking, but I don’t feel that they’re offering a fair deal yet,” Mr Trump said, of the European Union. “They’re either going to make a good deal or they’ll just pay whatever we say they have to pay.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on the sidelines of the G-7 summit that the objective was still to reach a deal before

higher reciprocal tariffs go into effect

on July 9 after a 90-day pause.

“It’s complex but we are advancing, that is good, and I push hard to pick up more speed, so we are mixed in the negotiations, and we will see what the end brings,” she said.

Pharma levies coming

Mr Trump also said there was a chance of a trade deal between Washington and Japan.

“They’re tough, the Japanese are tough, but ultimately you have to understand we’re just going to send a letter saying ‘this is what you’re going to pay, otherwise you don’t have to do business with us’. But there’s a chance,” he said.

Mr Trump also said pharmaceutical tariffs were coming very soon, repeating a threat he has made repeatedly to impose import taxes on medical goods in a bid to force drug makers to rebase production to the US.

“We’re going to be doing pharmaceuticals very soon. That’s going to bring all the companies back into America,” he said. “It’s going to bring most of them back into, at least partially back in.”

Mr Matthew Goodman, a former senior US official and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was always a “stretch goal” for Mr Trump to reach any deals at the G-7 summit beyond finalising the terms of a limited deal with Britain.

The US-UK deal, announced by Mr Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit in Canada, reaffirmed quotas and tariff rates on British automobiles and eliminated tariffs on the UK aerospace sector, but the issue of steel and aluminium remained unresolved.

Most other major US trading partners were still in talks to try to cement an agreement with Mr Trump before the three-month hiatus on

his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs

expires in about three weeks.

“I think July 9 is the real deadline. That’s when

the 90-day pause

ends, and I suspect that Trump and his team are trying to use that as maximum pressure to get countries to give more ground,” Mr Goodman said.

Mr Trump has signalled he could extend the deadline for countries that engaged in negotiations, but repeated his threat to send letters to other countries that simply spell out the US tariffs they would be facing. REUTERS