President Donald Trump on Sunday announced a major trade agreement with the European Union, the biggest deal yet as he seeks to revamp the global trading system and shore up domestic manufacturing.

“It’s a very powerful deal, it’s a very big deal, it’s the biggest of all the deals,” Trump said.

The EU—comprising 27 member nations—is America’s largest trading partner.

Subscribe Today

Get daily emails in your inbox

Email Address:

The deal comes days before an August 1 deadline that Trump had set for countries to make agreements with the U.S. and avoid high tariffs. It imposes a 15 percent tariff on most European goods, half the rate that Trump had previously threatened. 

Trump said that steel and aluminum tariffs would remain at their current rate of 50 percent. The EU, he added, had agreed to buy $750 billion worth of U.S. energy and boost investments in the U.S. by $600 billion.

The president made the announcement after meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland.