The US and the EU have agreed a trade deal which will see 15% tariffs on EU exports to the US. The deal, agreed Sunday at a meeting between President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, means that the threat of 30% tariffs from August 1 is now off the table.

Von der Leyen said that the 15% tariff will be “all inclusive” which would be different from the 10% rate which has been in place since April as that 10% tariff is additional to other duties which exporters to the US face.

This, potentially, could be good news for Irish dairy exports to the US as butter has always faced a tariff of $1,541 per tonne. If the 15% tariff is charged net of that duty, then the effective increase for Irish butter could end up being very small.

Trump said that the deal does not include pharmaceuticals and metals. Tariffs on steel and aluminium “stay the way it is” he said. Earlier on Sunday he said that pharmaceuticals would not be part of the agreement with the US. Von der Leyen said in a statement that pharmaceuticals were included in the 15% tariffs rate.

He said that the agreement is “the biggest of all the deals”.

There was very little published of what was agreed, and the details probably still need to be ironed out. Trump said that the EU had agreed to make extra US energy purchases, invest more in the country and purchase “vast amounts” of military equipment.

Von der Leyen said that the agreement “will bring predictability”.

*Paragraph four has been updated to include statement from Von der Leyen on pharma.