{"id":261019,"date":"2025-07-13T07:38:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T07:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/261019\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T07:38:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T07:38:08","slug":"macron-expresses-very-strong-disapproval-of-trumps-tariff-threat-as-eu-leaders-react-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/261019\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron expresses \u2018very strong disapproval\u2019 of Trump\u2019s tariff threat as EU leaders react \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s threat on Saturday to place a 30 per cent tariff<\/a> on goods from the European Union<\/a> caused outrage among European leaders, with some urging retaliatory tariffs while others said they hoped a deal could still be worked out before the new levies went into effect.<\/p>\n

The European Union has been in deep negotiations with Washington in the hope of reaching trade deals that would avert such punishing levies and a wider trade war. But Trump\u2019s threat to impose a 30 per cent levy on European and Mexican<\/a> goods on August 1st upended months of deliberations in one fell swoop, and European leaders are threatening to strike back.<\/p>\n

Ursula von der Leyen<\/a>, president of the European Commission, the EU\u2019s executive branch, said her administration was ready to keep working toward an agreement before the August 1st deadline. \u201cAt the same time, we will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The European Council president, Ant\u00f3nio Costa, said on social media that the EU \u201cremains firm, united and ready to protect our interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European Union had been frantically pushing for an agreement right up until Mr Trump announced the new tariffs Saturday morning. Many in Europe had been expecting at least a 10 per cent baseline tariff, with some possible exemptions.<\/p>\n

President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> of France suggested the 30 per cent rate came as a surprise after weeks of negotiations that he said were \u201cmade in good faith\u201d. He voiced \u201cvery strong disapproval\u201d of the tariffs in a social media post.<\/p>\n

France has been one of the loudest voices in Europe calling for retaliatory tariffs against the United States if a deal isn\u2019t reached. Macron reiterated a plea for the European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of the EU countries, to mobilise \u201call the instruments at its disposal\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others calling for retaliation include Brando Benifei, chair of the European Parliament\u2019s delegation for relations with the United States, and Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament\u2019s Committee on International Trade.<\/p>\n

Benifei said the EU\u2019s executive branch should \u201cimmediately put on the table a series of new credible countermeasures on goods, services, and intellectual property rights that would take effect August 1st without an agreement, and let\u2019s no longer postpone those that are due to come into force next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lange called the tariffs an \u201coutrage\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should no longer wait and see, but use our economic strength to make it clear that these unfair trade practices are unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prime minister Giorgia Meloni<\/a> of Italy, one of the few European leaders Trump likes, struck a more cautious tone.<\/p>\n

Her office said in a statement that it would make \u201cno sense to spark a trade war between the two sides of the Atlantic\u201d, and urged negotiators to avoid \u201cpolarisations that would make reaching an agreement more complex\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump threatened to meet any EU tariff retaliation with an equal increase in US tariffs. Experts said that would increase the chances of a wider trade war between the United States and Europe.<\/p>\n

Dan O\u2019Brien, chief economist at the Institute of International and European Affairs, said on social media that a 30 per cent tariff on European goods exported to America would have \u201ca significant trade destruction effect\u201d.<\/p>\n

The new tariffs also prolong the economic uncertainty weighing on various exporters, including German carmakers, Italian wine exporters and Irish pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n

Hildegard M\u00fcller, who heads VDA, the main lobby group for German carmakers, called the latest tariffs \u201cregrettable\u201d and urged negotiators from the European Union and the United States to find a solution \u201cas quickly as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

M\u00fcller said that the 27.5 per cent tariffs already in place for cars imported to the United States were hurting German automakers. It remains unclear whether the threatened 30 per cent tariffs would apply to imported cars, since Trump\u2019s letters said the latest tariffs would be \u201cseparate from all sectoral tariffs\u201d. If they did apply, European carmakers such as Volkswagen would be among the hardest hit. Almost all major carmakers also manufacture vehicles in Mexico.<\/p>\n

Mexico is projecting confidence that it will fend off a new set of tariffs threatened by Mr Trump, with talks already under way to avert the worst.<\/p>\n

Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum noted in speeches that every country has been getting a letter from Mr Trump as he implements global protectionist policies. Her team had already begun discussions with the US on Friday and she was confident Mexico would get a deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some experience with these things for several months now,\u201d Sheinbaum said at a clinic opening in Ensenada, Baja California. \u201cAnd I think we\u2019re going to reach an agreement with the United States government.\u201d \u2013 This article originally appeared in The New York Times<\/a>, additional reporting by Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump\u2019s threat on Saturday to place a 30 per cent tariff on goods from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[32,34,2000,299,5187,1699,2440,2132,1220,2612],"class_list":{"0":"post-261019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-emmanuel-macron","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-giorgia-meloni","15":"tag-mexico","16":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","17":"tag-us-tariffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114844788477454707","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261019","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=261019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}