{"id":127582,"date":"2025-05-24T08:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T08:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/127582\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T08:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T08:59:08","slug":"eu-vows-to-defend-interests-after-trump-threatens-50-percent-tariffs-trade-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/127582\/","title":{"rendered":"EU vows to defend interests after Trump threatens 50 percent tariffs | Trade War News"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU official says a trade deal \u2018must be guided by mutual respect, not threats\u2019 after the US president says talks with the bloc are \u2018going nowhere\u2019.<\/p>\n

The European Union has said it will defend its interests after United States President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50-percent tariff on all goods<\/a> from the 27-member bloc.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s top trade official, Maros Sefcovic, said in a post on X that he spoke on Friday with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EU is fully engaged, committed to securing a deal that works for both,\u201d he said, adding that the EU Commission remains ready to work in good faith towards an agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cEU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats. We stand ready to defend our interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he is \u201crecommending\u201d a huge 50 percent duty on the EU starting on June 1 since talks with them \u201care going nowhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Trump\"Trump disembarks Air Force One as he arrives in New Jersey, the United States, on May 23, 2025 [Nathan Howard\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

Speaking later in the Oval Office, the Republican president emphasised that he was not seeking a deal with the EU but might delay the tariffs if more European companies made major investments in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not looking for a deal,\u201d Trump told the reporters. \u201cWe\u2019ve set the deal. It\u2019s at 50 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

European leaders warned the tariffs will hurt both sides.<\/p>\n

German economy minister Katherina Reiche said everything must be done \u201cto ensure that the European Commission reaches a negotiated solution with the United States\u201d while French foreign minister Laurent Saint-Martin said the bloc prefers de-escalation but is \u201cready to respond\u201d.<\/p>\n

If implemented, the tariffs would mean that the EU will have higher import taxes on its hundreds of billions worth of exported goods compared with China, which had its tariffs cut<\/a> earlier this month to allow more negotiations between Washington, DC, and Beijing.<\/p>\n

In early April, Trump announced a 20 percent tariff on most EU goods but brought it down to 10 percent until July 8 to allow time for more negotiations.<\/p>\n

Trump has complained that existing frameworks are \u201cunfair\u201d to US companies as the European bloc sells more goods to its ally than it buys from it.<\/p>\n

Trump on Friday also warned that the US tech giant Apple could also be hit with a 25 percent import tax on all iPhones not manufactured but sold in the US.<\/p>\n

His announcements online dealt another blow to stock markets both in the US and in the EU, with the S&P 500 down about 0.8 percent and the pan-European STOXX 600 index falling about 1.2 percent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EU official says a trade deal \u2018must be guided by mutual respect, not threats\u2019 after the US president…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11410,1395,299,3058,12,1219,49,286,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-127582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-international-trade","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-trade-war","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-us-canada","16":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114561991540865457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}