EU and USA Putt Pact At Trump’s Golf Club in Scotland
On 27 July 2025, the EU and USA held a press conference to announce that both sides reached a historical accord following the tariff twisting tactic employed by Trump. The meeting between EC President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump took place at the Turnberry Golf Club, which is owned by Trump and is situated on the south-west coast of Scotland.
Under the new deal, most EU exports to US will undergo a 15% tariff, which is down from 30% that Trump initially threatened and was supposed to kick in on the 1st of August 2025. On the other hand, the EU has remove all tariffs on most US imports. However, certain special products categories such as Aluminum and Steel are excluded from the deal and are under a separate worldwide scheme. Aircrafts and related components, pharmaceuticals, certain chemicals, and semiconductors will only be considered on a case-specific basis.
“It’s a very powerful deal, it’s a very big deal, it’s the biggest of all the deals. In addition to the $750B purchase of energy, and $600B of investment, the EU will be procuring ‘hundreds of billions of dollars’ of military equipment.”
US President Donald Trump
Before the meeting, both sides did not display great confidence and expressed ‘a 50-50 chance’ of reaching a deal, but a final rush managed to narrow down the differences. Actually, the EU was aiming for a 10% tariff but finally got 15%. The basic principle underlying the negotiations was reducing the trade deficit without impacting the trade volume.
In order to close the trade deficit, President Trump also expressed the wish to see more American vehicles and agricultural products sold to EU. Currently, the EU has high barriers for such product categories in order to protect the domestic producers.
In the aftermath of the Ukraine-Russia war, the USA has been urging the EU to take more responsibility for their own security by increasing their defense budget and increasing their contribution to NATO. In addition, President Trump expects the EU to buy more advanced weaponry from the USA to beef up the deterrence against any attack.
With the Ukraine-Russia conflict ongoing, the EU has agreed to purchase USD 750 of energy — hydrocarbons and nuclear — from the USA over the next three years, in a bid to diversify away from Russia. In addition, the EU will invest up to USD 600 billion into the USA. Trade in goods and services between EU and USA amounted to nearly USD 1.5 trillion in 2024, thus averaging USD 4 billion per day, making it one of the most consequential bilateral trade relationship in the world.
Observers note that the deal in Scotland would perhaps be best qualified as a framework agreement with many minutiae still needing to be hashed out. Both sides agreed to sort out the pending items in the ‘coming days.’ Comparatively, a similar summit between EU and China last week did not appear to reap substantive results.