To which Trump chipped in, “ever struck by anybody”.
Von der Leyen also hailed the negotiations as a success.
“I think we hit exactly the point we wanted to find: rebalance, but enable trade on both sides, which means good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. It means prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Businesses have been gripped by uncertainty after Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on April 2 and then paused them until Aug 1 to help manage the market turmoil they caused.
Michael Brown, a senior research strategist at UK financial brokerage Pepperstone, called the deal “good news”.
“This is more a case of the risk of no deal being removed as opposed to whether it’s 15 per cent to 20 per cent, I’m not entirely sure that matters so much at least not in terms of how markets are going to trade in an hour or so when things get up and running for the week.”
“The two obvious reactions that you would expect are upside in the euro and upside in equity futures. I don’t think equities in particular needed much of an excuse to rally and now they’ve got one.”
Trump earlier told reporters gathered at the Scottish town of Ayr that he was “not in a good mood” for the trade talks with the EU.
When pressed on why exactly he was not in the best spirits, the US President did not directly answer the question.
He doubled down on his belief the “chances are probably 50/50 of making a deal” with the EU.
Trump continued: “I’d like to make a deal.”
Asked what the main sticking points were, the US President replied “fairness”.
He insisted “pharmaceuticals won’t be a part of” any trade deal with the EU.
That is particularly bad news for Ireland, which exported just shy of €100bn of medical and pharmaceutical goods last year, much of it to the critical American market. Sales to the US boomed further in the early months of this year as importers sought to bring in supplies before border taxes came in.
The world’s biggest pharma companies, including Pfizer, Novartis and AstraZeneca, all have major operations in the country. The Trump administration has argued that low taxes and incentives to invest in Ireland have unfairly pulled research and development as well as manufacturing out of the US and into the Celtic nation.
“We have to have them made in the US, we want them made in the US. Pharmaceuticals are very special,” he said.
“We can’t be in a position where we are relying on other countries. Europe is going to make pharmaceuticals, drugs and everything else for us too, a lot, but we are going to make our own.”
The Army and police shut down Aye for Trump’s visit.
The town of Ayr has been in lockdown for several days ahead of the President’s visit to his Turnberry golf course, where the talks were taking place.
