US vice president meets EU Commission chief, hopes to move forward trade talks

ROME: US Vice President JD Vance met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Sunday, and said he hoped their encounter would help move forward trade talks between the EU and the United States.

“Europe is an important ally of the United States… but, of course, we have some disagreements, as friends sometimes do, on issues like trade,” Vance said, sitting alongside von der Leyen and Meloni in Rome after they had all attended Pope Leo’s inaugural Mass.

“I think we’ll have a great conversation, and hopefully it will be the beginning of some long-term trade negotiations and some long-term trade advantages between both Europe and the United States,” he added.

The White House has imposed a 25% tariff on imports of steel, aluminium and cars, as well as a baseline 10% tariff on almost all countries, with additional “reciprocal” tariffs – making for a combined 20% in the EU’s case – lined up if negotiations during a 90-day pause fail.

Von der Leyen said the trade relationship between the European Union and the United States was the largest in the world and worth more than $1.5 trillion a year.

She added that the two sides had exchanged negotiating documents outlining the various areas of future discussion.

“It is important now we’ve exchanged papers that our experts are deep diving, are discussing the details,” she said.

“Everybody knows that the devil is in the detail, but what unites us is that at the end, we want together to have a good deal for both sides,” she added.

Von der Leyen has not managed to hold a formal meeting with US President Donald Trump since he regained the US presidency in January, exchanging words only briefly at Pope Francis’s funeral last month at the Vatican.

Besides discussing tariffs, she said she also wanted to talk to Vance about Ukraine and defence spending.