The EU agrees to terms for trade talks with the US

The European Union approved the terms for negotiating a new trade agreement with the United States of America, but refused to include agricultural products in the talks.

Key EU member states said the new agreement would focus mainly on removing tariffs on industrial goods.

The EU Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmstrom, has stated that she will contact her American counterpart to determine the time to start official negotiations.

"The EU is convinced that the agreement will be mutually beneficial, as any trade agreement should be. Economic analysis shows that the EU-US agreement to remove tariffs on industrial goods would increase EU exports to the US by 8 percent and US exports to the EU by 9 percent. Another important thing is the commission's commitment to further examine the economic potential as well as the environmental and social impacts of the agreement, and this will be carried out during this year and will consider our international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement," says Malmstrom, the Telegraph reports.

The trade pact is the result of an agreement reached last July by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and US President Donald Trump.

Trump imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imported from the EU on June 1.

In retaliation, the EU imposed tariffs on nearly 2.8 billion euros on US steel, agricultural products and other products.

Source: Telegrafi