WASHINGTON/BRUSSEL (March 25): The European Union's (EU) trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic met with US President Donald Trump's top trade officials on Tuesday to try to avoid steep US. tariffs on EU goods next week, but results of the talks were unclear.

Sefcovic said he held "substantive talks" with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett.

Two previous discussions with the Trump officials had yet to alter Trump's plans to raise US import duties to match the rates charged by major trading partners and counteract their non-tariff trade barriers.

"The hard work goes on. The EU's priority is a fair, balanced deal instead of unjustified tariffs," Sefcovic said in a post on X. "We share the goal of industrial strength on both sides."

A USTR spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the discussions.

The meetings come as some countries are preparing tariff concessions ahead of Trump's April 2 announcement of the reciprocal tariff plan, a day he has dubbed "Liberation Day" for the US economy from unfair trade practices.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that India is open to cutting tariffs on more than half of US imports, valued at US$23 billion (RM101.75 billion), in the first phase. India has among the highest trade-weighted average tariff rates at 12.1%, compared to 2.5% for the US, according to the World Trade Organization.

A US delegation led by Assistant USTR Brendan Lynch is in New Delhi this week for trade talks with Indian officials from Tuesday through Saturday, the US embassy in New Delhi said.

Trump said on Monday that he may give "a lot of countries" breaks on tariffs, but provided no details. Trump also said that separate tariffs on autos, pharmaceuticals and aluminum were coming in "the very near future".

EU officials have struggled to talk Trump back from a trade war, as he embarks on a multi-front tariff offensive expected to draw strong retaliatory measures. Sefcovic said last week that little progress has been made in talks with Washington, after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this month.

"They will discuss much of the same issues they've been discussing for the past few weeks, which is EU-US trade relations, and from our perspective, why we should be making every effort on both sides to avoid harmful tariffs and build rather than tear down the EU-US trade and economic relationship, which is the strongest in the world," European Commission spokesman Olof Gill told reporters on Monday.

Sefcovic has said that the EU was willing to discuss reducing automotive tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic, including the EU's 10% car tariff and the US' 25% truck tariff.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters in Halifax that Canada was prepared to add retaliatory trade measures against the US, depending on Trump's April 2 trade actions. Trump has also threatened to end a month-long tariff reprieve for goods compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.

But Carney said that Canada was not rushing to the negotiating table with Trump, with whom he has not spoken since taking office, adding that he wants "substantive discussions" between sovereign nations — a reference to Trump's frequent demands that Canada should be annexed by the US.

"We're not rushing to the table to take something," Carney said. "Serious discussions, sovereign nation to sovereign nation, comprehensive 'Canada strong' against America as equals, and that's when we will get the best deal for Canada."

But White House officials have cautioned that countries rushing for early tariff relief were unlikely to avoid them completely, because Trump's reciprocal duty calculations will include non-tariff barriers, currency policies, and other factors that are harder to roll back.

The EU will delay its first set of counter-measures to mid-April, including a 50% tariff on US bourbon. In response, Trump threatened to slap a 200% tariff on all wines and other alcoholic products from the EU if the bloc imposes retaliatory tariffs.

Trump officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have said that much of the reciprocal tariff focus will be on 15 countries that have the highest goods trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to these partners as the "Dirty 15".

They did not name these, but according to US Census Bureau data, the following trade partners had the largest trade surpluses with the US: China, the EU (as a bloc), Mexico, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Canada, India, Thailand, Switzerland, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and South Africa.

In a request for public comments on reciprocal tariffs, the Office of the USTR expressed particular interest in submissions for the largest US trade partners, and those with the highest goods trade surpluses.

USTR named Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Türkiye, the UK and Vietnam as being of particular interest, adding that they cover 88% of total goods trade with the US.

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