AP PARIS 

The European Union will suspend retaliatory tariffs on US goods scheduled to take effect on Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month.

“This is now the time for negotiations,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday, after President Donald Trump sent a letter announcing new tariffs of 30 per cent on goods from the EU and Mexico starting August 1.

The EU — America’s biggest trading partner and the world’s largest trading bloc — had been scheduled to impose ‘countermeasures’ starting Monday at midnight Brussels time (6 pm EDT; 22:00 GMT). The EU negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries. Von der Leyen said those countermeasures would be delayed until August 1, and that Trump’s letter shows “that we have until the first of August” to negotiate.

Europe’s biggest exports to the US are pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments and wine and spirits. “We have always been clear that we prefer a negotiated solution,” she said. If they can’t reach a deal, she said that “we will continue to prepare countermeasures so we are fully prepared.”

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni warned on Sunday that a trade war “would make us all weaker in the face of the global challenges we face together” and said Italy would actively work for a fair deal.