Brussels and Washington are struggling to finalise a joint statement that would seal a transatlantic trade deal, with European Union officials insisting the bloc’s landmark Digital Services Act must remain untouched.
Drafts of the statement have been circulating for weeks after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Donald Trump unveiled a compromise on tariffs on 27 July. The agreement capped most EU exports to the United States at a 15 per cent import duty, half the levy the White House had originally threatened. The two sides had hoped to publish the detailed statement within days but are still haggling over wording on so-called non-tariff barriers, language the US says should cover digital regulation.
An American official told the Financial Times that Washington wanted “to keep the door open for possible concessions” on the Digital Services Act, which obliges big technology firms to remove illegal content more aggressively. “We continue to address digital trade barriers in conversations with our trading partners,” the official said.
EU negotiators argue that the act is non-negotiable. One official involved in the talks said: “We made political commitments, which we intend to honour, provided they [the US] do the same first in that sequence”.
The impasse has already held up other concessions. Brussels expected Mr Trump to sign an executive order cutting the tariff on EU car exports from 27.5 per cent to 15 per cent by 15 August. A US official told the FT that any move on so-called Section 232 levies “will follow the finalisation of joint statements with trading partners that we have reached agreements with”.
Officials on both sides downplay the prospect of a collapse in talks but concede that finding language acceptable to domestic audiences remains difficult. Olof Gill, a European Commission spokesperson, said negotiators were still “fully focused on getting to that joint statement” and noted that “the last mile is always the hardest”.
