EU Seeks Tariff Exemptions for €150 Billion in Exports to US
Quick Look
- The European Commission has provided the US with a list of hundreds of EU products, including cheese, wine, and medical devices, totaling €150 billion in exports, for exemption from 15% US tariffs agreed upon in a 2025 trade deal.
- This follows the EU's removal of its own tariffs on US industrial goods.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The EU and US signed a trade deal in 2025, where the EU accepted 15% US tariffs on its exports in exchange for removing its own tariffs on US industrial goods. Negotiations for exemptions were announced in August 2025 but stalled until the EU reduced its tariffs.
The European Commission has given the US a list of EU products which it wants to see exempted from the 15 percent tariffs imposed under the trade deal signed by Brussels and Washington in 2025.
The list, seen by Euronews, includes hundreds of products, such as Roquefort cheese, olive oil, wines, spirits and beer, pasta, medical devices, electrical equipment and machinery.
EU trade official Matthias Jørgensen told MEPs on Tuesday that the list covered around €150 billion worth of EU exports.
He also said that the products were either “economically meaningful” for the EU or had a “limited domestic availability in the US”.
In July 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump clinched a deal in Turnberry, Scotland after weeks of trade disputes, under which the Europeans agreed to accept 15 percent US tariffs on EU exports while removing their own tariffs on US industrial goods.
Negotiations on exemptions from the duties were also announced in a joint statement by Brussels and Washington published in August 2025, but the US refused to open talks before the EU reduced its tariffs on US goods.
Since a deal was reached in May by EU legislators and that Brussels removed its duties on 1 July, the European Commission hopes to secure carve-outs from the 15 percent US tariffs.
The joint statement said that the US and the EU would “consider” applying the tariffs that existed before 2025 to products that are “important for their economies and value chains.” Those tariffs averaged around 3.3 percent.
Since 2025, EU countries have been lobbying the Commission – which negotiates on their behalf in trade matters – to secure carve-outs for their main exports to the US.
France, Italy and Spain have been pushing in particular for more favourable tariffs on wine.
The EU also hopes to start discussions on steel and aluminium, which are still subject to 50 percent US tariffs. Jørgensen said he expects talks on those products to be “challenging”.
“The US has made very clear that for national security reasons, this is an area where the it wants to maintain and protect US production,” he told EU lawmakers.
The commissioner also said that despite the Turnberry agreement, trade relations between the EU and the US would remain “at high risk of volatility”, pointing to Trump's public threats to EU countries who impose a digital tax on US big tech companies.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Talks on steel and aluminium tariffs will be challenging.
Likely · Within months
Open Questions
- Which specific products will the US exempt?
- When will talks on steel and aluminium tariffs begin?
- How will the US react to EU digital taxes?
