"Obviously, the Americans are not ready to sign a symmetrical agreement on tariffs," he said after talks with visiting Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
"On our part, we offer an open access to a tariff-free market because we, the Europeans, are convinced that open markets are beneficial for all sides, both importers and exporters," he stated, TASS reported.
According to Merz, the tariffs negotiations are proceeding intensively. "The European Commission is negotiating for entire Europe and we need an agreement for entire Europe," he added.
US President Donald Trump announced that the United States will charge the European Union a tariffs of 30%, separate from the sectoral tariffs of 10%, starting on August 1.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen slammed this move, saying that such tariffs would disrupt transatlantic supply chains and called for efforts to try to reach an agreement before August 1. EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic confirmed that the European Union will negotiate the tariffs cancellation but has already drawn a list of goods amounting to some 72 billion euros worth of US imports, if the talks fail.