MORRISTOWN, New Jersey -- US President Donald Trump on Sunday backed off his threat to speed up 50% tariffs on imports from the European Union, agreeing to extend his deadline for trade talks until July 9 after the head of the EU executive body said the bloc needed more time to "reach a good deal."

Trump threatened on Friday to intensify his trade war after expressing frustrations that trade talks were not moving quickly enough, saying he wanted steep new import taxes to start on June 1. The threat roiled global markets.

Trump relented after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told him during a phone call that the EU needed more time to come to an agreement and asked him to delay the tariffs until July, the deadline he had originally set when he announced new tariffs in April.

Trump told reporters on Sunday that he had granted the request. He said that von der Leyen told him "we will rapidly get together to see if we can work something out." Von der Leyen said in a social media post that the EU was ready to move quickly in trade talks.

Von der Leyen said in a post on X on Sunday that she had a "good" phone call with Trump.

In early April, Trump had set a 90-day window for trade talks for the EU and the US which was to end on July 9.

Reuters

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