EU trade chief ready to discuss trade deals, lower tariffs with Trump

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The European Union's top trade officials said on Wednesday the bloc was interested in making mutually beneficial trade deals with U.S. President Donald Trump, and was ready to discuss the potential for reducing or eliminating tariffs on motor vehicles and other goods.

Maros Sefcovic, commissioner for trade and economic security, told an American Enterprise Institute event in Washington that he would tell Trump administration trade officials that he hoped to avoid unilateral U.S. tariffs and European retaliation.

"I will be making this point to my American counterparts when I meet them later today. The EU is interested in making deals – deals that foster fairness, burden-sharing and mutual benefits," Sefcovic said.

Sefcovic is slated to meet with newly confirmed U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett and U.S. Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer later on Wednesday.

The 27-member EU could be hit especially hard by Trump's "reciprocal" tariff plan announced last week to raise U.S. import tariff rates to match those charged by other countries.

The EU has a 10% tariff on passenger cars, four times the rate of the U.S. passenger car tariff of 2.5% and U.S. officials have complained about European value added taxes of at least 17.5%.

Trump has erroneously said on several occasions that the EU had already agreed to lower its car tariff to 2.5%.

Sefcovic confirmed the EU had taken no such action, but was ready to discuss.

"So if we are going to talk about lowering the tariffs, even eliminating the tariffs, let's say for industrial products, this will be something which we are ready to discuss," he said. "We are ready to go for it."

This includes discussions about lowering vehicle tariffs on both sides, he said, adding that he would also want to look at the much higher 25% U.S. tariff on pickup trucks. The duty, which stems from a 1960s U.S.-European trade dispute, keeps non-North American imports out of one of the most lucrative segments of the U.S. vehicle market.

In the meeting with U.S. counterparts, he said he would like to learn their priority trade topics so that discussions can start to reach common ground in a "solid, solid package."

But Sefcovic reiterated prior statements that there was no justification for unilateral U.S. tariffs, and that the EU would "respond firmly and swiftly, but we do hope to avoid this scenario."

(Reporting by David Lawder; Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Franklin Paul and Daniel Wallis)