BRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 EU trade ministers agreed Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement of 30% tariffs on the European Union was \u201cabsolutely unacceptable,\u201d and they are studying a new set of countermeasures to respond to the move.<\/p>\n
The ministers met Monday in Brussels following Trump\u2019s surprise announcement over the weekend of such hefty tariffs, which could have repercussions for governments, companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. The EU is America\u2019s biggest business partner and the world\u2019s largest trading bloc.<\/p>\n
Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, the EU\u2019s trade representative in its talks with the U.S., said after the meeting that it was \u201cvery obvious from the discussions today, the 30% is absolutely unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that the commission was sharing proposals with the 27 member countries \u201cfor the second list of goods accounting of some 72 billion euros ($84 billion) worth of U.S imports. They will now have a chance to discuss it. This does not exhaust our toolbox and every instrument remains on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, foreign minister of Denmark, which recently assumed the presidency of the EU, said the ministers vowed to work together in negotiating a trade deal with Washington or agreeing on countermeasures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe EU remains ready to react and that includes robust and proportionate countermeasures if required and there was a strong, feeling in the room of unity,\u201d Rasmussen told reporters after the meeting.<\/p>\n
The tariffs, also announced for Mexico, are set to start on Aug. 1 and could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the U.S., and destabilize economies from Portugal to Norway.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Brussels decided to suspend retaliatory tariffs<\/a> on U.S. 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 The \u201ccountermeasures\u201d by the EU, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries, will be delayed until Aug. 1. Trump\u2019s letter shows \u201cthat we have until the first of August\u201d to negotiate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Sunday.<\/p>\n Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, the EU\u2019s trade representative in its talks with the U.S., said negotiations would continue Monday. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m absolutely 100% sure that a negotiated solution is much better than the tension which we might have after the 1st of August,\u201d he told reporters in Brussels on Monday. But he added that \u201cwe must be prepared for all outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI cannot imagine walking away without genuine effort. Having said that, the current uncertainty caused by unjustified tariffs cannot persist indefinitely and therefore we must prepare for all outcomes, including, if necessary, well-considered proportionate countermeasures to restore the balance in our transit static relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n The letters to the EU and Mexico come in the midst of an on-and-off Trump threat to impose tariffs on countries and right an imbalance in trade. <\/p>\n Trump imposed tariffs in April on dozens of countries, before pausing them for 90 days to negotiate individual deals. As the three-month grace period ended this week, he began sending tariff letters<\/a> to leaders, but again has pushed back the implementation day for what he says will be just a few more weeks.<\/p>\n If he moves forward with the tariffs, it could have ramifications for nearly every aspect of the global economy. The American Chamber of Commerce in the European Union, an influential industry group representing major American corporations in Europe, said the tariffs could \u201cgenerate damaging ripple effects across all sectors of the EU and US economies\u201d and praised the EU\u2019s delay of countermeasures.<\/p>\n In the wake of the new tariffs, European leaders largely closed ranks, calling for unity but also a steady hand<\/a> to not provoke further acrimony. <\/p>\n Just last week, Europe was cautiously optimistic. <\/p>\n Officials told reporters on Friday they weren\u2019t expecting a letter like the one sent Saturday and that a trade deal was to be inked in \u201cthe coming days.\u201d For months, the EU has broadcast that it has strong retaliatory measures ready if talks fail.<\/p>\n Reeling from successive rebukes from Washington, \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said Monday the EU is \u201cdoubling down on efforts to open new markets\u201d and pointed to a new economic agreement with Indonesia as one. <\/p>\n The EU top brass will visit Beijing for<\/a>a summit<\/a> later this month while courting other Pacific nations like South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia, whose prime minister visited Brussels over the weekend to sign a new economic partnership with the EU. It also has mega-deals in the works with Mexico and a trading bloc of South American nations known as Mercosur<\/a>, and \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d will meet with his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates next week.<\/p>\n While meeting with Indonesia\u2019s president on Sunday, Von der Leyen said that \u201cwhen economic uncertainty meets geopolitical volatility, partners like us must come closer together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 EU trade ministers agreed Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement of 30% tariffs on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1789,7665,51,32,5211,2000,5215,299,5187,1699,4179,5212,3058,40309,1216,285,5214,1220,10673,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-265733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-belgium-government","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-economic-policy","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-eurocopa-2024","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-european-union","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-government-policy","20":"tag-international-trade","21":"tag-lars-lokke-rasmussen","22":"tag-maros-sefcovic","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","25":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","26":"tag-washington-news","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114854807970208075","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265733","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=265733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}