The United States and the European Union reached a trade framework agreement on Sunday to set a 15% tariff on most EU goods, averting, at least for now, a bigger trade war between the two allies that account for almost a third of global trade.

The sweeping announcement came after President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen met briefly at Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. Their private sit-down culminated months of bargaining, with the White House deadline Friday nearing for imposing punishing tariffs on the EU’s 27 member countries.

“It was a very interesting negotiation. I think it’s going to be great for both parties,” Trump said. The agreement, he said, was “a good deal for everybody” and “a giant deal with lots of countries.”

Von der Leyen said the deal “will bring stability, it will bring predictability, that’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Many facets will require more work

As with other recent tariff agreements that Trump announced with countries including Japan and the United Kingdom, some major details remain pending in this one.

Trump said the EU had agreed to buy some $750 billion worth of U.S. energy and invest $600 billion more than it already is in America – as well as make a major military equipment purchase. He said tariffs “for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15%” and meant that U.S. exporters “have the opening up of all of the European countries.”

Von der Leyen said the 15% tariffs were “across the board, all inclusive” and that “indeed, basically the European market is open.”

At a later news conference away from Turnberry, she said the $750 billion in additional U.S. energy purchases was actually over the next three years – and would help ease the dependence on natural gas from Russia among the bloc’s countries.

“When the European Union and the United States work together as partners, the benefits are tangible,” Von der Leyen said, noting that the agreement “stabilized on a single, 15% tariff rate for the vast majority of EU exports,” including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

“15% is a clear ceiling,” she said.

But von der Leyen also clarified that such a rate wouldn’t apply to everything, saying that both sides agreed on “zero for zero tariffs on a number of strategic products,” like all aircraft and component parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials.

It is unclear if alcohol will be included in that list.

“And we will keep working to add more products to this list,” she said, while also stressing that the “framework means the figures we have just explained to the public, but, of course, details have to be sorted out. And that will happen over the next weeks.”

Further EU approval needed

In the meantime, there will be work to do on other fronts. Von der Leyen had a mandate to negotiate because the European Commission handles trade for member countries. But the Commission must now present the deal to member states and EU lawmakers, who will ultimately decide whether or not to approve it.

Before their meeting began, Trump pledged to change what he characterized as “a very one-sided transaction, very unfair to the United States.”

“I think both sides want to see fairness,” the Republican president told reporters.

Von der Leyen said the U.S. and EU combined have the world’s largest trade volume, encompassing hundreds of millions of people and trillions of dollars and added that Trump was “known as a tough negotiator and dealmaker.”

“But fair,” Trump said.

Trump has spent months threatening most of the world with large tariffs in hopes of shrinking major U.S. trade deficits with many key trading partners. More recently, he had hinted that any deal with the EU would have to “buy down” a tariff rate of 30% that had been set to take effect.

But during his comments before the agreement was announced, the president was asked if he’d be willing to accept tariff rates lower than 15%, and he said “no.”

First golf, then trade talk

Their meeting came after Trump played golf for the second straight day at Turnberry, this time with a group that included sons Eric and Donald Jr. In addition to negotiating deals, Trump’s five-day visit to Scotland is built around golf and promoting properties bearing his name.

A small group of demonstrators at the course waved American flags and raised a sign criticizing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who plans his own Turnberry meeting with Trump on Monday.

Other voices could be heard cheering and chanting “Trump! Trump!” as he played nearby.

On Tuesday, Trump will be in Aberdeen, in northeastern Scotland, where his family has another golf course and is opening a third next month. The president and his sons plan to help cut the ribbon on the new course.

The U.S. and EU seemed close to a deal earlier this month, but Trump instead threatened a 30% tariff rate. The deadline for the Trump administration to begin imposing tariffs has shifted in recent weeks, but is now firm and coming Friday, the administration insists.

“No extensions, no more grace periods. Aug. 1, the tariffs are set, they’ll go into place, Customs will start collecting the money and off we go,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told “Fox News Sunday” before the EU deal was announced.

He added, however, that even after that, “people can still talk to President Trump. I mean, he’s always willing to listen.”

Without an agreement, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and auto parts to beer and Boeing airplanes.

If Trump eventually followed through on his threat of tariffs against Europe, meanwhile, it could have made everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the United States.

“I think it’s great that we made a deal today, instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all,” Trump said. “I think it’s the biggest deal ever made.”

The Turkish economy has reentered a “positive cycle,” overcoming the period of domestic and international uncertainties and difficulties, a top official said on Saturday, reiterating the aim to lower inflation.

“Our country’s credit rating has been upgraded. Our economy has overcome a period of domestic and international uncertainties and challenges, reentering a positive cycle,” Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said in a post on X, referring to the latest upgrade of Türkiye’s rating by Moody’s.

Moody’s raised Türkiye’s long-term debt rating one notch, from “B1” to “Ba3,” with a “stable” outlook, the credit rating agency said on Friday.

Moody’s justified its decision by citing effective economic policies that have helped restore investor confidence in the Turkish lira.

It also highlighted the central bank’s commitment to the tight monetary policy that “durably eases inflationary pressures” and “reduces economic imbalances.”

“This rating increase confirms our successful management of the process and the resilience of our economy,” Şimşek further said.

“We are determined to permanently reduce inflation, maintain the current account deficit at a sustainable level, and strengthen budget discipline, excluding earthquake-related expenditures,” he added.

In a televised interview on Sunday, Şimşek reiterated his statement about returning to the “positive cycle,” citing the recovery in reserves since March.

“Our reserves were over $170 billion in mid-March and have now returned to that level. Therefore, we are back to the levels we were before these shocks began,” he noted.

“Our CDSs were around 256, reached 300, and now they are around 280 again,” he added. At the same time, he also pointed out that financial conditions have now eased, noting that growth continues at a moderate pace and that they have not experienced a significant deterioration in the current account deficit.

Regarding inflation goals, he recalled that the year-end inflation forecast is between 24% and 29%.

“We anticipate a midpoint between those figures. The core of our program is to combat the cost of living. That is, to permanently reduce inflation and increase our citizens’ purchasing power,” he said.

The annual inflation rate in Türkiye eased to 35.05% in June, slowing down significantly from around 75% in May 2024, according to official data.

The minister also said on X on Saturday that they aim to make “the gains of our program permanent through reforms that will drive structural transformation in industry, particularly in green and digital transformation.”

“As we continue to implement our program with patience and determination, our risk premium will further decrease, access to financing will increase and new rating upgrades will follow,” Şimşek said.

The Turkish government has been implementing an economic program with the main aim of lowering inflation to single digits, while also focusing on issues such as green and digital transformation, tax evasion and reducing the budget and current account deficits.

The Turkish central bank cut its key interest rate from 46% to 43% on Thursday, a slightly larger-than-expected reduction.

The institution began a series of rate cuts in December as inflation slowed, but on Thursday, it predicted a temporary rebound in monthly inflation in July.

In the longer-term, it expects inflation to ease to 24% by the end of this year and 12% by the end of 2026.

Apart from Moody’s, Fitch Ratings also affirmed the country’s rating at “BB-” on Friday, maintaining a “stable” outlook.

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Germans need to work longer and more, Economy Minister Katherina Reiche has told a paper in remarks published on Saturday, spurring immediate criticism from worker representatives.

“Demographic change and increasing life expectancy make this unavoidable. Lifetime working must rise,” she said.

Working for just two-thirds of adult life and going on a pension for a third was not possible over the longer term. Too many people had denied demographic reality for too long, Reiche said.

“We have to work harder and longer,” she said. While many were working in physically arduous jobs, there were also many who could and wanted to work for longer.

Reiche noted that companies were reporting that employees worked 1,800 hours per year in the U.S. and only 1,340 in Germany.

She said that reforms agreed by the new center-left government in its coalition deal would not suffice over the longer term.

“Social security systems are overloaded. The combination of nonwage labor costs, taxes and deductions are making the labor factor in Germany uncompetitive over the longer term,” Reiche said.

Christian Baumler, who heads the workers association within Reiche’s own Christian Democrats, expressed criticism of the minister’s remarks and noted that they had no basis in the coalition deal with Social Democrats.

“An economy minister who does not realize that Germany has a high part-time working ratio, and thus a low average annual working time, is the wrong choice for the position,” he said.

The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) also warned against raising the retirement age. “To ensure good pensions, more money must now come in on the income side of the pension insurance system,” said DGB board member Anja Piel.

Tasks that benefit society as a whole, such as pensions for mothers, must be paid for out of tax revenue and not out of the pension fund, she said.

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Turkish solar technology company CW Enerji will invest $520 million (TL 21.09 billion) under the government’s HIT-30 incentive program to expand its high-efficiency solar panel manufacturing capacity in the Antalya Organized Industrial Zone, according to a recent report by Anadolu Agency (AA).

The company currently produces high-efficiency TOPCon solar cells at its CW Solar Cell facility in the southwestern coastal city of Antalya, with an annual capacity of 1.2 gigawatts (GW).

The facility is the largest of its kind in Türkiye and Europe. With the new investment, CW Enerji aims to boost capacity to 5 GW by 2028 as part of the project’s second phase.

The factory manufactures high-tech solar panels from ingot raw materials and sources over 80% of its components domestically.

CW Enerji Chairperson Tarik Sarvan emphasized the strategic importance of local supply chains in a recent interview with AA.

“We will source the gases and chemicals needed in production from within Türkiye,” said Sarvan. “This will protect local producers and help build a healthy ecosystem.”

Sarvan founded the company in 2010, having gained experience in Europe’s solar energy sector.

Under the HIT-30 program, which aims to establish Türkiye as a global high-tech manufacturing hub by 2030, CW Enerji is supporting national solar energy goals.

“We will produce solar panels in line with Türkiye’s VAT incentive regulations and with more than 80% domestic content,” Sarvan said. “This investment will also create specialized jobs for chemists, energy system engineers and physicists.”

The company has already launched a 35-45 megawatt production line at its new facility and has expanded into related technologies, including EVA, aluminum, glass and junction boxes.

The company is also producing aluminum components specifically for solar plants and previously benefited from Türkiye’s 5th Region incentives.

As global solar cell prices decline due to shifting production in China and the U.S., Sarvan sees an opportunity for Türkiye’s industrial base.

“We’ve established firms in Munich and Houston to supply country-specific solar panels,” he said. “Currently, we have 1.8 GW of panel production capacity, with 90% sold domestically.”

CW Enerji exports to nearly 60 countries and is active in all stages of the solar value chain, from manufacturing to wholesale and EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) services.

Its panels are used in industrial rooftops, agricultural irrigation systems, marine applications and smart home systems.

“With a current capacity of 1.2 GW, our facility remains the largest producer of TOPCon High Efficiency cells in Türkiye and Europe,” Sarvan said.

“We’re expanding over an area of 200,000 square meters to reach 5 GW of total capacity, targeting both U.S. and European markets,” he concluded.

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The U.S. central bank is widely expected to hold off cutting interest rates again at its upcoming meeting, as officials gather under the cloud of a mounting pressure campaign by President Donald Trump.

Policymakers at the independent Federal Reserve (Fed) have kept the benchmark lending rate steady since the start of the year as they monitor the impact of Trump’s sweeping tariffs on the world’s largest economy.

With Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff approach – and the lagged effects of the levies on inflation – Fed officials want to see economic data from this summer to gauge how prices are being affected.

When mulling changes to interest rates, the central bank – which meets on Tuesday and Wednesday – seeks a balance between reining in inflation and the health of the jobs market.

But the bank’s data-dependent approach has enraged the Republican president, who has repeatedly criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not slashing rates further, calling him a “numbskull” and “moron.”

Most recently, Trump signaled he could use the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation project as an avenue to oust Powell, before backing off and saying that would be unlikely.

Trump visited the Fed construction site on Thursday, making a tense appearance with Powell in which the Fed chair disputed Trump’s characterization of the total cost of the refurbishment in front of the cameras.

But economists expect the Fed to look past the political pressure at its policy meeting.

“We’re just now beginning to see the evidence of tariffs’ impact on inflation,” said Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.

“We’re going to see it (too) in July and August, and we think that’s going to give the Fed reason to remain on the sidelines,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

‘Trial balloon’

Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has imposed a 10% tariff on goods from almost all countries, as well as steeper rates on steel, aluminum and autos.

The effect on inflation has so far been limited, prompting the U.S. leader to use this as grounds for calling for interest rates to be lowered by three percentage points.

Currently, the benchmark lending rate stands at a range between 4.25% and 4.50%.

Trump also argues that lower rates would save the government money on interest payments and floated the idea of firing Powell.

The comments roiled financial markets.

“Powell can see that the administration floated this trial balloon” of ousting him before walking it back on the market’s reaction, Sweet said.

“It showed that markets value an independent central bank,” the Oxford Economics analyst added, anticipating, Powell, will be instead, more influenced by labor market concerns.

Powell’s term as Fed chair ends in May 2026.

Jobs market ‘fissures’

Analysts expect to see a couple of members break ranks if the Fed’s rate-setting committee decides for a fifth straight meeting to keep interest rates unchanged.

Sweet cautioned that some observers may spin dissents as pushback on Powell, but argued that this is not necessarily the case.

“It’s not out of line or unusual to see, at times when there’s a high degree of uncertainty, or maybe a turning point in policy, that you get one or two people dissenting,” said Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman have both signaled openness to rate cuts as early as July, meaning their disagreement with a decision to hold rates steady would not surprise markets.

Bostjancic said that too many dissents could be “eyebrow-raising” and lead some to question if Powell is losing control of the board, but added: “I don’t anticipate that to be the case.”

For Sweet, “the big wild card is the labor market.”

There has been weakness in the private sector, with hiring rates below average and the number of permanent job losers increasing.

“There are some fissures in the labor market, but they haven’t turned into fault lines yet,” Sweet said.

If the labor market suddenly weakened, he said he would expect the Fed to start cutting interest rates sooner.

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Former Turkish central bank chief Süreyya Serdengeçti passed away on Saturday at the age of 73, local media reports said.

Serdengeçti, who served as the head of the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) from 2001 to 2006, is credited with lowering inflation to single digits during his tenure, which followed the 2001 economic crisis.

Within the same period, in 2005, Türkiye also transitioned to the new currency by dropping six zeros from the previous “old lira.”

Serdengeçti was born in Istanbul in 1952 and graduated from the Middle East Technical University in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Later on, between 1984 and 1986, he studied in the U.S., where he earned a master’s degree in economics at Vanderbilt University.

In 1980, he began working in the Foreign Debt Repayment Department of the CBRT, and from 1982 onward, he served in the Foreign Exchange Operations Department. Upon his return to Türkiye, he continued to manage foreign exchange reserves at the central bank.

He held several other positions before being appointed as the governor of the central bank in March 2001 by then-State Minister for the Economy, Kemal Derviş.

“We have learned with sadness of the passing of Mr. Süreyya Serdengeçti, who served as the Governor of the Central Bank between 2001 and 2006. We extend our condolences to his family and all his loved ones, and pray for God’s mercy upon him,” the CBRT said in a statement on X on Saturday.

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