BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commissioner for trade, Maros Sefcovic, is heading to Washington to meet the U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday, a Commission spokesperson said on Monday.
Sefcovic will also meet with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The spokesperson declined to provide more details about the discussion.
European officials have struggled to talk U.S. President Donal Trump down from a trade war as they did during Trump’s first administration. Sefcovic said last week that little progress has been made in talks with Washington after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports earlier this month.
The EU will delay its first set of counter-measures to mid-April, including a 50% tariff on U.S. bourbon. In response, Trump threatened to slap a 200% tariff on all wines and other alcoholic products from the EU if the bloc went ahead with this.
Trump also plans to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on April 2.
(Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Alex Richardson)
