Washington not ready to negotiate on tariffs - EU Trade Commissioner

The European Union is ready to start trade negotiations immediately with the United States, but Washington is not ready to negotiate on tariffs, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at the OECD in Paris after talks with the U.S. trade representative, Malmstrom said that if the two sides agreed to move ahead it would go quickly. It was "crystal clear", she added, that agriculture would not be in the European negotiating mandate.