BRUSSELS: The Trump administration has assured the European Union that it wants to abide by the EU-U.S. trade deal struck last year despite Donald Trump's imposition of a new "import surcharge" of 10%, European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday.

The EU trade chief said that he had been in repeated contact with U.S. counterparts, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump's global tariffs, to determine what the Trump administration plans to do next.

"They both reassured me that they stand by the deal with the European Union," Sefcovic told a hearing at the European Parliament.