Germany’s Merz thinks US-UK trade deal is ‘good way forward’

BRUSSELS ― Germany’s new leader Friedrich Merz said this week’s trade deal between Britain and the U.S. was a positive step — but reminded Donald Trump such a pact would be impossible to negotiate with individual EU countries.

“I congratulated the U.S. president on the agreement he has reached with the United Kingdom yesterday,” Merz said at a press conference with European Council President António Costa during a whistlestop tour of Brussels on Friday. “That is a good way forward.”

Merz said he spoke by phone with Trump late Thursday.

London and Washington inked an agreement this week to lift some of Trump’s tariffs and expand reciprocal market access. Trump said the “historic” deal, which is the first with another country since he announced a barrage of global tariffs last month, would bring the U.K. into “economic security alignment” with the U.S.

But Merz, who was sworn in as German chancellor this week, cautioned that it is “not possible to do that with individual EU member states because we only negotiate trade together.”

“My impression is that he [Trump] accepted that, so he knows now he can only negotiate with us together,” he added.

While the final details are still to be nailed down, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, told reporters in the Oval Office that the U.S.-U.K. deal had “opened up new market access” in “ethanol, beef, machinery, all the agricultural products,” and that the U.K. would be buying $10 billion worth of Boeing planes.

In return, the British government said U.S. tariffs on autos would be “immediately slashed” from 27.5 percent to 10 percent, with those on steel and aluminum reduced to zero.

But the U.K. still remains subject to Trump’s 10 percent ” baseline” tariff on all goods sent to the U.S.