After EU deal, Trump eyes China trade agreement as Beijing faces deadline amid US tariff standoff

The United States and the European Union clinched a trade agreement on Sunday (July 27, 2025) that will see EU exports taxed at 15 percent. This deal comes as an effort to resolve a transatlantic tariff standoff that threatened to explode into a full-blown trade war. US President Donald Trump emerged from a high-stakes meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf resort in Scotland, describing the deal as the "biggest ever." The deal came as the clock ticked down on an August 1 deadline to avoid an across-the-board US levy of 30 percent on European goods.

After the European Union, there are high chances that Trump has his eyes on a successful deal with China amid the trade war due to tariffs. Meanwhile, top U.S. and Chinese economic officials are set to resume talks in Stockholm on Monday (July 28, 2025) to try to tackle longstanding economic disputes at the centre of a trade war between the world's top two economies, aiming to extend a truce by three months and keep sharply higher tariffs at bay.

China is facing an August 12 deadline to reach a durable tariff agreement with President Donald Trump's administration, after Beijing and Washington reached preliminary deals in May and June to end weeks of escalating tit-for-tat tariffs and a cut-off of rare earth minerals. Without an agreement, global supply chains could face renewed turmoil from U.S. duties snapping back to triple-digit levels that would amount to a bilateral trade embargo.


The US president, in May 2025, had clarified his intentions behind striking a deal with China when he said that Beijing is in a trade surplus with Washington, and according to him, these are not good signs for America. “China, as you know, has a tremendous trade surplus with us, and we can’t, you know, we just can’t have that,” he had said back then, as quoted by The Telegraph.
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During a press conference after signing a deal with the UK, Trump in May 2025, had said that a deal with Beijing would be, “the greatest thing that ever happened to China.” The people will be happier,” he said, according to The Telegraph. “They’ll buy for less. They’ll see things that they never saw before … and it’ll create great long-term peace,” he added. Trump had further claimed that China “very much wanted to make a deal”.

In May 2025, Britain and the US concluded a landmark economic agreement. The deal was defined in the General Terms for the Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD). Both countries agreed to begin negotiations on the EPD immediately to develop and formalize the proposals in the General Terms. The government remains relentlessly focused on securing the best outcomes for UK industry and ensuring that businesses up and down the country can feel the benefits of the deal as soon as possible, according to UK government website.

US-China Stockholm talks

The Stockholm talks come hot on the heels of Trump's biggest trade deal yet with the European Union on Sunday for a 15% tariff on most EU goods exports to the U.S., including autos. The bloc will also buy $750 billion worth of American energy and make $600 billion worth of U.S. investments in the coming years.

No similar breakthrough is expected in the U.S.-China talks but trade analysts said that another 90-day extension of a tariff and export control truce struck in mid-May was likely. An extension of that length would prevent further escalation and facilitate planning for a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in late October or early November.

A U.S. Treasury spokesperson declined comment on a South China Morning Post report quoting unnamed sources as saying the two sides would refrain from introducing new tariffs or other steps that could escalate the trade war for another 90 days. Trump's administration is poised to impose new sectoral tariffs that will impact China within weeks, including on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, ship-to-shore cranes and other products.

"We're very close to a deal with China. We really sort of made a deal with China, but we'll see how that goes," Trump told reporters on Sunday before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck their tariff deal.