At 15% US tariffs, EU says its trade still flows

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -U.S. tariffs of 15% on imports from the European Union still allow trade with the United States to flow and what is important is not the rate itself but the level compared with competitors, a senior European Commission trade official said on Wednesday.

“There is a level … where a tariff becomes prohibitive and trade will no longer flow, but with the 15% all-inclusive that is not where we are,” Sabine Weyand, director-general of the EU executive’s trade division, told a European Parliament hearing.

Weyand, part of the EU team that struck a framework deal with the Trump administration at the end of July, advised EU lawmakers to vote in favour of EU plans to fulfil its side of the deal by removing its duties on U.S. industrial products.

She said data from the second qua