The European Union is on course for a full-blown trade war with Donald Trump’s America after preparing a new set of tariffs. Brussels is preparing retaliatory tariffs on US imports worth €72 billion (£63 billion), as tensions between the EU and Washington escalate.
Donald Trump stunned European leaders when he threatened to impose 30% on EU imported goods from August 1. The announcement caught Brussels off guard, with officials having believed a deal was imminent. EU diplomats had previously briefed that a trade deal with a baseline reciprocal 10% levy was all but done and dusted.
Now Brussels is busy preparing to finalise retaliatory measures, even as talks between the two sides continue. Officials have secured agreement across the bloc to slap tariffs on US goods, ranging from US-made cars, aircraft, bourbon whiskey, chemical products, medical devices, electrical equipment to agricultural produce.
The European Commission had wanted to hit up to €95 billion worth of US trade, but was forced to re-evaluate after objections from several EU countries. The EU’s package of €72 billion in retaliatory tariffs comes on top of an existing set of counter-levies on US soybeans, motorbikes, orange juice – worth €21 billion (£18bn) and which is ready to go if talks fail to reach an agreement.
Brussels’ trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said the fresh threats of 30% tariffs on EU goods would “prohibit” future EU-US trade, if those levies came into force next month.
However, Trump has threatened to impose even higher tariffs, if the EU dares to retaliate – as the prospect of an all-out trade war looms ever closer.
In the letter sent on Friday to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the US President accused Brussels of having taken advantage of the US.
“We have had years to discuss our trading relationship with the European Union, and have concluded that we must move away from these long-term-large, and persistent, trade deficits, engendered by your tariff, and non-tariff, policies and trade barriers,” he wrote. “Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from reciprocal,” he added.
European businesses have seen near-blanket tariffs of 10% slapped on goods sold into the US since early April. Even more damagingly for the bloc, EU exporters of steel and aluminium have been hit with 50% levies, while car exports have been slapped with 25% tariffs.
