Brussels wants to increase purchases of US goods by €50bn to address the “problem” in the trade relationship, the EU’s top negotiator has said, adding that the bloc is making “certain progress” towards striking a deal. But Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade commissioner, suggested in an interview with the Financial Times that the bloc would not accept Washington keeping in place 10 per cent tariffs on its goods as a fair resolution to trade talks. Steep tariffs are due to be imposed on the EU and multiple countries in early July, leaving the bloc racing to avoid a full-blown transatlantic trade war. The US and EU had made progress through multiple rounds of in-person and telephone negotiations since President Donald Trump imposed, then paused, 20 per cent tariffs on the bloc, Sefcovic said. He added that “his ambition” was still to strike a “balanced and fair” deal with the White House. Šefčovič said the key argument he was making to US trade representative Jamieson Greer and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick was taking account of American services exports to the EU, which would bring the overall trade deficit with Europe to only about €50bn. That could be closed rapidly with deals to purchase more US gas and agricultural products, he said. “If what we are looking at as a problem in the deficit is €50bn, I believe that we can really . . . solve this problem very quickly through LNG purchases, through some agricultural products like soyabeans, or other areas,” Sefcovic said. “What is very important is that I think we understand each other a little bit better, what is their position, where are they coming from? And I think they understand us a little bit better,” he added. “I think we have a little bit more understanding on the figures.”