Trump Delays Tariff Deadline on EU Imports

Summary

President Trump delayed impos­ing a 50 per­cent tar­iff on E.U. imports until July 9^th to allow for trade deal nego­ti­a­tions, cit­ing trade bar­ri­ers and taxes as rea­sons for the tar­iff increase. The E.U. is con­sid­er­ing retal­ia­tory tar­iffs on U.S. goods, with both sides at an impasse in nego­ti­a­tions, while European olive oil exporters are explor­ing other mar­kets due to the poten­tial impact of the tar­iffs on their exports to the U.S.

After threat­en­ing to impose a 50 per­cent tar­iff on all European Union imports from June 1^st, United States President Donald J. Trump agreed to delay the dead­line until July 9^th to give more time for nego­ti­a­tions on a trade deal with the 27-mem­ber bloc.

Currently, E.U. exports to the U.S., includ­ing table olives and olive oil, face a ten per­cent tar­iff, down from the orig­i­nal 20 per­cent tar­iff announced on April 2^nd.

Trump cited trade bar­ri­ers, Value Added Tax (VAT), cor­po­rate taxes and European lit­i­ga­tion against U.S. com­pa­nies as the rea­sons for more than dou­bling the orig­i­nally pro­posed tar­iff rate.

European and U.S. offi­cials have acknowl­edged that the nego­ti­a­tions are cur­rently at an impasse, with both sides adher­ing to their long-held posi­tions.

If the U.S. were to fol­low through on its tar­iff plan, European offi­cials are con­sid­er­ing whether to retal­i­ate.

Member states have already voted to approve a 50 per­cent tar­iff on €21 bil­lion on some U.S. goods, and the European Commission is also con­sult­ing on an addi­tional list of goods val­ued at €95 bil­lion.

Trump’s announce­ment came days after the International Olive Council said U.S. olive oil imports had increased by seven per­cent in the first seven months of the 2024/25 crop year, includ­ing a 34 per­cent increase in February 2025 com­pared to February 2024.

IOC data show the U.S. imported 99,033 met­ric tons of olive oil since October, val­ued at €787 mil­lion. 

According to the IOC, the E.U. is the lead­ing exporter of olive oil to the U.S., ship­ping an aver­age of 252,000 tons annu­ally, which rep­re­sents more than 90 per­cent of U.S. olive oil imports.

Overall, the U.S. is Europe’s largest trad­ing part­ner, account­ing for more than 20 per­cent of goods exported, with a value of €530 bil­lion in 2024.

While many European exporters man­aged to ship the 2024/25 har­vest to the U.S. ahead of the tar­iffs being announced in April, they are increas­ingly look­ing at other mar­kets.

“For the next har­vest, we’ll be ready to export to Canada, Germany and South Korea if we can­not bring the prod­uct into the U.S. in decent con­di­tions,” said Marie-Charlotte Piro, the co-owner of Tuscany-based Olio Piro.

“Small pro­duc­ers like us can­not be counted on to absorb all the tar­iff, and we can­not count on small retail­ers like our whole­sale part­ners to absorb it,” she added.

However, the well-devel­oped and highly famil­iar U.S. mar­ket, which rep­re­sents 37 per­cent of global olive oil imports, will be dif­fi­cult to replace. 

For com­par­i­son, Asia’s largest and wealth­i­est coun­tries, includ­ing China, India, Japan and South Korea, imported less than one-third the amount of olive oil by value as Spain, Italy and Greece exported to the U.S. in 2023.

The poten­tial for new trade bar­ri­ers comes as the IOC also found that the value of E.U. olive oil exports has fallen sig­nif­i­cantly, drop­ping to €647 per 100 kilo­grams in February 2025, a 32 per­cent decrease com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year and 7.5 per­cent lower than in January.

Lower export prices are largely due to har­vest rebounds across the Mediterranean, includ­ing Spain, Turkey and Tunisia. According to the IOC, E.U. olive oil exports by vol­ume increased by 21 per­cent in February 2025 com­pared to February 2024 and by 12 per­cent com­pared to the pre­vi­ous month.

• Financial Times
• International Olive Council