By Edith Hancock

The European Commission's trade enforcer is set to meet his U.S. counterparts this week in an effort to deescalate a looming trade spat between the two regions.

Maros Sefcovic--an executive vice president of the commission overseeing the European Union's trade and economic security policy--is travelling to Washington D.C. to meet U.S. commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and trade representative Jamieson Greer, a commission spokesperson said.

"They will discuss much the same issues they've been discussing for the past few weeks, which is EU-U.S. trade relations, and from our perspective, why we should be making every effort on both sides to avoid harmful tariffs and build rather than a tear down the EU-U.S. trade and economic relationship which is the strongest in the world," Olof Gill, a spokesperson for the EU's executive arm, said on Monday.

EU diplomats have been trying to negotiate with their American peers in recent weeks as the Trump administration's steel and aluminium tariffs went into effect earlier this month, adding pain to the EU's industrial base. Sefcovic had previously said the administration doesn't appear to be open to negotiations before another round of planned reciprocal tariffs set for April 2.

The EU originally planned to impose tariffs on a wide range of U.S. goods--from poultry to American whiskey--at the start of April, but officials are now planning to wait until the middle of the month to allow for more time to negotiate with Trump's team as well as to calculate a response to the next wave of U.S. tariffs.

Trump has also threatened to slap a 200% tariff on wines and spirits from the EU. Pauline Bastidon, director of trade and economic affairs for SpiritsEurope, told Dow Jones Newswires that this would deal a "deadly blow" to producers across Europe.

Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 24, 2025 08:34 ET (12:34 GMT)

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