{"id":263509,"date":"2025-07-14T06:12:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T06:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/263509\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T06:12:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T06:12:19","slug":"eu-trade-ministers-to-mull-us-tariffs-as-germanys-merz-cautions-calm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/263509\/","title":{"rendered":"EU trade ministers to mull US tariffs as Germany\u2019s Merz cautions calm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-grey-6-180x22.svg\" width=\"180\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>EU trade ministers meet in Brussels on Monday after US President Donald Trump declared 30% tariffs on the EU will start 1 August, meanwhile German leaders joined other European leaders on Sunday advising a calm approach to the continuing trade negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>The ministers will meet to discuss trade with the US and China during the first of a two-day Foreign Affairs Council convening in the Belgian capital.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, US President Donald Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/business\/2025\/07\/12\/trump-eu-goods-will-face-30-us-tariff-rate-starting-on-1-august\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>posted a new set of letters to his social media platform Truth Social<\/strong><\/a>, making the 30% declaration in respect of the EU and Mexico, a move that could cause massive upheaval between the United States and two of its biggest trade partners.<\/p>\n<p>European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen quickly responded by noting the bloc&#8217;s \u201ccommitment to dialogue, stability, and a constructive transatlantic partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have always been very clear that we prefer a negotiated solution. This remains the case, and we will use the time that we have now till the 1st of August,&#8221; she said during a press conference on Sunday. &#8220;We&#8217;ve prepared for this, and we can respond with countermeasures if necessary.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Von der Leyen also said that the the EU will suspend retaliatory tariffs on US goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the Trump administration by the end of the month.<\/p>\n<p>German chancellor Friedrich Merz adopted a sanguine tone in the media telling national broadcaster ARD on Sunday that he \u00a0had spoken to von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and Trump on Friday and they agreed to attempt seeking a deal over the next two weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Merz said negotiations were advanced and underlined that other countries that have received similar letters \u2013 including China and Canada &#8211; have usually found reasonable solutions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody needs new threats or provocations right now. What we need is for the EU to continue serious and focused talks with the US,\u201d the country\u2019s finance minister, Lars Klingbeil, told Germany\u2019s S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung.<\/p>\n<p>Other European leaders joined von der Leyen in urging Trump to give negotiations more time and warnings of possible new tariffs on Washington.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith European unity, it is more than ever up to the Commission to assert the Union\u2019s determination to resolutely defend European interests,\u201d French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement posted on X.<\/p>\n<p>Italy&#8217;s Meloni cautions not to trigger a trade war<\/p>\n<p>Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni\u2019s office said &#8220;it would make no sense to trigger a trade war between the two sides of the Atlantic.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Danish Foreign Minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen told broadcaster DR that Trump was taking a \u201cpointless and a very shortsighted approach.&#8221; Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson warned in an interview with the country&#8217;s public broadcaster SVT that \u201ceveryone loses out from an escalated trade conflict, and it will be US consumers who pay the highest price.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof wrote on X that the announcement &#8220;is concerning and not the way forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin said on Saturday that the tariffs represent a &#8220;setback&#8221;, adding that levies are &#8220;not sustainable and tenable&#8221;. During his remarks, Martin also mentioned that the European Union has countermeasures on the table, but &#8220;it doesn&#8217;t want to have to deploy and would prefer a negotiated approach&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADVERTISEMENT EU trade ministers meet in Brussels on Monday after US President Donald Trump declared 30% tariffs on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1945,15518,554,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-263509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-friedrich-merz","12":"tag-trade-agreement","13":"tag-trump-tariffs","14":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114850112820017693","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263509","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=263509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}