U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, noted that the European Union needs to resolve a number of “internal issues” before beginning trade negotiations with the United States. Bessent made this statement during a briefing at the White House on April 29, as reported by Bloomberg.
He emphasized that the U.S. is negotiating with “many different interests” and added that “some European countries have introduced an unfair digital services tax against the U.S.”
The Secretary pointed out that countries like Germany and Poland have not imposed such a tax and expressed the opinion that the U.S. wants “this unfair tax, which affects one of the major industries of the U.S. economy, to be repealed.”
Earlier, White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett stated that the U.S. had made “significant progress” in negotiations with the EU regarding tariffs. However, according to the press, after the talks earlier this week, the European side did not receive clear timelines on when the U.S. might be ready to remove its tariffs.
