EU Trade Commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič has asserted that President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 30% tariffs on European goods is “effectively prohibitive” to the mutual trade between the EU and US.
Arriving for talks with European Ministers in Brussels, Šefčovič said that a tariff of 30% or more would have a huge impact, making it “almost impossible to continue” current transatlantic trade, which is worth €4.4bn (£3.8bn) a day.
EU Ministers are meeting to discuss trade relations with the US after Trump, threatened to impose 30% tariffs on the bloc – despite what they believed were promising talks with the US administration on how to avoid them.
Expressing disappointment, the EU Trade Commissioner said that his negotiating team thought they had been close to a deal as the two sides had been negotiating an agreement in principle – the outlines of a deal – for four weeks prior to Trump’s blunt announcement at the weekend.
He added that such tariffs would make it “almost impossible to continue the trading as we are used to,” with supply chains on both sides of the Atlantic “heavily affected” by the change.
Šefčovič noted that the bloc noted Trump’s letter with “regret and disappointment,” but promised to engage further with his US counterparts to try to find a way out of this crisis. He added that he “cannot imagine walking away without genuing effort.”
“I will be discussing with ministers the next steps for the upcoming weeks.
“I see these focused on four areas: negotiations, rebalancing measures, engagement with like minded partners, and diversification of our trade.”
Maroš Šefčovič
Danish Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen warned that EU trade relations with the US are on a “critical juncture.”
The US President said firing the weekend that EU imports would face a tariff of 30% from 1 August, denting European optimism that talks to secure a still painful 10% duty were almost finalised.
“We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies, and Trade Barriers …
“Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”
Donald Trump
In response to Trump’s latest deadline, the EU decided to postpone retaliatory countertariffs on €21bn of US goods that had been due to kick in at midnight on Monday until August 1, 2025
Further Round Of Countermeasures To Be Discussed
The EU Ministers will also discuss plans for a further round of countermeasures, targeting €72bn of US imports to the EU.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who will chair the talks, said that Europe did not want a trade war with the US, which would be “devastating” for both sides.
“We don’t want to escalate things then, on the other hand, we also need to flash some muscles.”
Lars Løkke Rasmussen
France has called for an acceleration of preparations on countermeasures and said that the EU should be ready to use its untested “anti-coercion instrument”, a law to impose punitive measures on a country seen to be using trade as a weapon.
Striking a different tone, Germany has called for a “pragmatic” response, while Italy has warned against a trade war.
Countries in central and eastern Europe are also concerned that countermeasures could trigger a withdrawal of US military support in Europe.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister, Keṣtutis Budrys, said that the EU had to avoid escalation, citing “geoeconomic challenges” and “the issues that we have to solve together with the US, like fentanyl.”
Trump has accused Canada and Mexico of not doing enough to combat flows of the opioid into the US, although the issue is not known to have been a feature of EU-US trade talks.
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