The EU says the U.S. is resisting efforts to strike a trade deal and warned of countermeasures if no agreement is reached with U.S. by Aug. 1.

The US president’s hardened stance aims to test the EU’s pain threshold after weeks of talks on a framework agreement that would have maintained a baseline tariff of 10 per cent on most goods. People familiar with the negotiations say Trump has also been unmoved by the latest EU offer to reduce car tariffs,

President Trump said he plans to write to many nations setting a blanket unilateral tariff rate, which he said could be 10% or 15%. "We’ll have well over 150 countries that we’re just going to send a notice of payment out" detailing tariffs,