The United States has offered an agreement to the European Union that would keep a 10 percent baseline tariff on all EU goods, with some exceptions for sensitive sectors such as aircraft and spirits, an EU diplomat and a national official told POLITICO.

The Trump administration had said on Sunday that it would push back a deadline for the return of its sweeping tariffs to Aug. 1. Tariffs would then revert to their April 2 rates for countries that fail to nail down new U.S. trade deals.

Trump began on Monday to issue letters to countries stating their tariff rates, starting with South Korea and Japan, which will both face a 25 percent tariff from Aug. 1. 

EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič has been in contact with the U.S. administration following a call on Sunday between U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Stressing the sensitivity of those talks, Šefčovič debriefed with EU ambassadors and said the Commission was not expecting to receive one of those letters, two diplomats said.

The contours of a trade agreement are still very much a moving target, the diplomats stressed, with any deal subject to Trump’s blessing to move forward. 

Washington gave no indications it would exempt politically sensitive industries such as cars, steel and aluminum or pharmaceuticals, as requested by the EU. France, Italy and Ireland would likely be pleased with exemptions on spirits and aircraft, however. 

Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that an executive order would make the extension of the pause official.

Before that announcement came through, the bloc was still operating on the old target of July 8 and was aiming to strike an agreement with Washington — with the EU executive adamant it would work toward a deal by Wednesday.

Irish Trade Minister Simon Harris, however, said in a statement Monday evening that “we can now expect an extension of the current status quo until August 1 to give further time for the EU and the U.S. to reach an agreement in principle.” 

At the same time, Brussels faces a dilemma as to whether to accept asymmetry in its dealings with Washington or face further unpredictability from the Trump administration. 

In the Monday evening meeting, which diplomats described as somber, Brussels noted that it hadn’t received any guarantees from the U.S. administration that there wouldn’t be further U-turns on tariffs.

The European Commission declined to comment, adding that “negotiations were ongoing.”

Daniel Desrochers contributed reporting.