President Trump said on Friday there is a “50/50 chance, maybe less than that” of his administration striking a trade deal with the European Union ahead of a looming deadline next week.
Mr. Trump, who made the comments before he left for a four-day visit to Scotland, comes ahead of the White House’s Aug. 1 deadline for striking trade agreements with the the EU and other nations. If the US and EU fail to reach a deal, the president has threatened to impose a 30% tariff on imports from the trading bloc’s 27 member countries.
Dozens of other nations also face higher tariff rates starting Aug. 1, except for those that have already done a deal before the deadline.
The U.S. has recently announced the outlines of trade deals with Japan, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and U.K., though with many details still remaining to be finalized.
This is breaking news and will be updated.
contributed to this report.