Henry Foy in Turnberry, Aime Williams in Washington and Andy Bounds in Brussels Published July 27 2025 Updated July 27 2025 Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would “like” to strike a deal with the EU that would avert a transatlantic trade war, adding there was a “50-50 chance”. Trump said he was “looking forward” to negotiations with the EU that would aim to end the bloc’s “unfair” trade relationship with the US. “We should give it a shot,” Trump said ahead of negotiations with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. Sitting next to von der Leyen, Trump said the US-EU trade relationship was “unfair to the United States . . . a one-sided relationship”. “Both sides want fairness,” he added. Von der Leyen said Trump was a “tough negotiator,” adding that any trade deal between the EU and the US would be the largest struck by the two leaders. She agreed the EU’s trade surplus in goods with the US, which hit almost €200bn last year, needed to be cut, describing it as a “rebalancing”. A trade agreement between the US and EU would be a major victory for Trump, who has spent months forcing America’s allies into bruising negotiations by threatening steep tariffs. However, Trump underscored the difficulty of the negotiations with the EU when he insisted that relief on any future US pharmaceutical tariffs would not be included in a deal with the bloc. “We have to have them built in the United States, and we want them made in the United States,” Trump said, referring to pharmaceutical products. “And I think it’s easy to say, and I think it’s important to say, pharmaceuticals are very special.” US trading partners have expressed concern that, even when they strike agreements with Trump to lower his tariffs, they face uncertainty over future levies on sectors including pharmaceuticals, chips and aerospace. Trump also said US levies on steel and aluminium, which he has set at 50 per cent on most countries across the world, would not be tackled until after an initial agreement with the EU, dashing the hopes of industry in the bloc for an early and low tariff quota. Trump has threatened to impose 30 per cent tariffs on EU products imported into the US if no deal is finalised by August 1, a move that would almost certainly spark retaliation by the bloc and a transatlantic trade war. The EU has prepared a retaliatory package of tariffs of up to 30 per cent against €92bn of US exports if it cannot reach an agreement.