On August 21, 2025, the White House published a joint statement from the United States and the European Union (“EU”) announcing “key details” of a Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade (“Framework Agreement”). Though presented as a new accord, the Framework Agreement elaborates on a trade deal first announced in late July 2025, in which the EU agreed to eliminate all import tariffs on U.S. industrial goods and the United States in exchange would impose a 15% import tariff on EU goods while maintaining existing national security tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 on steel, aluminum, and copper (all currently set at 50%).
The August 21, 2025 joint statement, however, marks a shift in tone. While the earlier announcement used language indicating firm commitments (e.g., “the EU will remove significant tariffs” and “the European Union will pay the United States a tariff rate of 15%”), the joint statement adopts more aspirational language. It states, for example, that “the European Union intends to eliminate tariffs on all U.S. industrial goods,” and that “the United States commits to apply the higher of either the U.S. Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariff rate or a tariff rate of 15 percent” on imports EU in origin.
Otherwise, the joint statement largely aligns with the original announcement. It adds, however, that the United States will apply only the MFN tariff rate to certain categories of goods, instead of a 15% rate, on “unavailable natural resources (including cork), all aircraft and aircraft parts, generic pharmaceuticals and their ingredients and chemical precursors.”
The joint statement clarifies that Section 232 tariffs on lumber, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors “will not exceed 15 percent” once the ongoing Section 232 investigations into those goods conclude. (For background on these Section 232 investigations, see Update of March 3, 2025 (lumber), Update of April 15, 2025 (pharmaceuticals), and Update of April 15, 2025 (semiconductors).) It notes that once the EU formally introduces the necessary legislation to eliminate tariffs on U.S. industrial goods, the United States will ensure that tariffs on automobiles and automobile parts from the EU—currently subject to a 25% Section 232 tariff—will not exceed 15%. See Update of March 27, 2025.
While the joint statement highlights “key terms” accepted by both parties, it acknowledges that “[t]he United States and the European Union intend this Framework Agreement to be a first step in a process that can be further expanded over time to cover additional areas and continue to improve market access and increase their trade and investment relationship.”
Notably, the joint statement does not include the full text of the Framework Agreement, and does not mention several critical points, including: a termination date, a dispute resolution mechanism for disagreements over interpretation or application of the trade deal, or any rules of origin provisions.