European leaders and analysts react to US-EU trade deal

The US and the EU have reached a landmark deal that will impose a 15 percent tariff on most of the bloc's exports to the US, effectively averting a potential trade war between world's two major economies.

The agreement was finalized on Sunday during talks between US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland, just ahead of an August 1 deadline that would have triggered significantly higher tariffs.

European leaders have expressed differing views of the deal. 

Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade, described the proposed framework, which includes a 15-percent tariff on all EU exports to the United States, as "unsatisfactory" and "significantly imbalanced."

The tariff rate, he noted, would represent a fourfold increase over current average levels, while the EU would commit to zero tariffs on US goods.

Finnish Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Ville Tavio, said that the tariff is too high, according to Yle News. "It has calmed the situation, but there's no reason for celebration," he added.

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told Reuters that "it is a sombre day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission".

Additionally, commentary around Wall Street believes that the US recession risk has dimmed, even if tariffs still have the strong potential to exert a stifling impact on growth, as reported by CNBC.

"We still believe the most likely outcome is slow growth and firm inflation: Not a recession, but a backdrop where the adverse effects of trade and immigration controls on growth outweigh the boost from deregulation and fiscal largesse," cited Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Zezas.

The trade agreement between the US and the EU has caused severe market turmoil. The dollar rose against the safe-haven Swiss franc, up 1% at 0.80325 francs, according to Reuters. The euro witnessed its biggest daily loss since mid-May.