This live blog will now close (again). We’ll leave you with Lisa O’Carroll’s report on Ursula von der Leyen, Donald Trump, and the prospect of an EU-US trade deal on Sunday.
The EU appears to be on the verge of signing a trade deal with Donald Trump after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced she would meet the US president on Sunday during his four-day trip to Scotland.
Trump was scheduled to land on Friday evening ahead of the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire and was already scheduled to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Monday.
The European Commission said von der Leyen’s visit was at Trump’s invitation. Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said on Friday a deal would “hopefully be signed off before the weekend is over”.
Before boarding an Air Force One flight to Glasgow, the US president had said the EU only had a “50/50” chance of a deal but later said his teams were working “diligently” to land the “big one” with the bloc, potentially signalling an end to the threat of a trade war.
While European shares fell, European luxury and car shares - two of the sectors most exposed to tariffs along with wine and spirits - rose, with LVMH and Europe’s largest car manufacturer Volkswagen closing up around 4% and 3%, respectively, the biggest gainers.
We reported earlier that Volkswagen has been particularly badly hit by Donald Trump’s US import tariffs, which the car manufacturer has said have cost it more than £1bn in the first half of the year.
Combining goods, services and investment, the EU and the United States are each other’s largest trading partners. The American Chamber of Commerce in Brussels warned in March that any conflict jeopardised $9.5 trillion of business in the world’s most important commercial relationship.
The EU is facing US tariffs on more than 70% of its exports - 50% on steel and aluminium, 25% on cars and car parts and a 10% levy on most other goods, which US President Donald Trump has said he would hike to 30% on August 1, a level EU officials said would wipe out whole chunks of transatlantic commerce. Further tariffs on copper and pharmaceuticals are also looming.
The EU has prepared countermeasures that could enter into force on August 7 in the event that talks collapse.
