Trump says EU not offering fair trade deal, Japan being ‘tough’ too

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Japan was being “tough” in trade talks and the European Union had not yet offered what he considered a fair deal, as a team led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stayed at the G7 meeting in Canada to keep working on trade issues after Trump’s abrupt early departure.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the EU would need to offer Washington “a good deal” or face higher tariffs.

Trump spoke after leaving the Group of Seven summit early to focus on the Middle East, disappointing trading partners who had hoped to make progress on thorny trade talks. He told reporters Bessent was staying on in Kananaskis, Alberta, to keep talking with counterparts on trade.

White House officials said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett also remained in Canada and would be meeting their counterparts. They said Trump met informally with all G7 members, but had not seen the leaders of India, Australia or Mexico, who were also slated to meet him in Canada this week.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum tweeted later in the day that she had a “very good” phone call with Trump on Tuesday and they agreed to work together to reach a deal on “diverse topics.” The White House later confirmed the call.

“We’re talking, but I don’t feel that they’re offering a fair deal yet,” Trump told reporters, referring to the European Union. “They’re either going to make a good deal or they’ll just pay whatever we say they have to pay.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit that the objective was still to reach a deal before higher reciprocal tariffs go into effect on July 9 after a 90-day pause.

“It’s complex but we are advancing, that is good, and I push hard to pick up more speed, so we are mixed in the negotiations, and we will see what the end brings,” she said.

Greta Peisch, a trade lawyer at Wiley Rein in Washington, said Trump’s departure was disappointing for trading partners since he was leading trade policy and it was sometimes unclear what tradeoffs he was willing to make.

“If they don’t have a clear view of what that is … that can obviously slow things down and make it more difficult to conclude the negotiations,” she said.

Trump also said there was a chance of a trade deal between Washington and Japan.

“They’re tough, the Japanese are tough, but ultimately you have to understand we’re just going to send a letter saying ‘this is what you’re going to pay, otherwise you don’t have to do business with us’. But there’s a chance,” he said.

Trump also said pharmaceutical tariffs were coming very soon, repeating a threat he has made repeatedly to impose import taxes on medical goods in a bid to force drug makers to rebase production to the U.S.

“We’re going to be doing pharmaceuticals very soon. That’s going to bring all the companies back into America,” he said, referring to an ongoing Commerce Department investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. “It’s going to bring most of them back into, at least partially back in.”

Matthew Goodman, a former senior U.S. official and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was always a “stretch goal” for Trump to reach any deals at the G7 summit beyond finalizing the terms of a limited deal with Britain.

The U.S.-UK deal, announced by Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Canada, reaffirmed quotas and tariff rates on British automobiles and eliminated tariffs on the U.K. aerospace sector, but the issue of steel and aluminum remained unresolved.

Over a dozen other major U.S. trading partners are still in talks to work out agreements with Trump before the three-month hiatus on his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs expires in about three weeks.

“I think July 9 is the real deadline. That’s when the 90-day pause ends, and I suspect that Trump and his team are trying to use that as maximum pressure to get countries to give more ground,” Goodman said.

Trump has signaled he could extend the deadline for countries that engaged in negotiations, but repeated his threat to send letters to other countries that simply spell out the U.S. tariffs they would be facing.