{"id":320178,"date":"2025-08-05T15:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T15:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/320178\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T15:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T15:48:15","slug":"eu-commission-surprised-by-german-finance-ministers-jibe-on-trade-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/320178\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Commission &#8216;surprised&#8217; by German finance minister&#8217;s jibe on trade deal\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n         Published on<br \/>\n            05\/08\/2025 &#8211; 17:10 GMT+2\n            <\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-ad__placeholder__logo\" src=\"https:\/\/static.euronews.com\/website\/images\/logos\/logo-euronews-stacked-outlined-72x72-grey-9.svg\" width=\"72\" height=\"72\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n          ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>The European Commission said on Tuesday it was surprised\u00a0by comments German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil\u00a0in which he highlighted the EU\u2019s weakness in the ongoing tariff talks, despite Germany having been fully briefed ahead of the agreement reached on July 27 by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is most surprising to us,\u201d Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said, adding: \u201cNothing has happened here in terms of the Commission\u2019s approach, negotiation or outcome achieved without the clear signal received from our member states.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Klingbeil said on Monday, ahead of his meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant in Washington DC, that EU representatives \u201chave shown weakness\u201d during trade negotiations with the US.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOverall, as Europeans, we must become stronger,&#8221; Klingbeil insisted, &#8220;then we can also stand up to the US\u00a0with more self-confidence. Not against the US, but in dialogue with the US.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Germany \u201chad been fully briefed on the details of the agreement at a political level\u201d, Commission Deputy Spokesperson Arianna Podest\u00e0 added on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Since the announcement of the EU-US tariff agreement on July 27, the Commission has maintained that the deal represents the least bad option, allowing the EU to avoid a further escalation in the transatlantic trade dispute.<\/p>\n<p>However, the details of the agreement are still under negotiation, just days after a US Executive Order\u00a0set tariffs at 15%. Germany, in particular, continues to see its automotive industry heavily impacted by 25% US tariffs\u00a0\u2014 contrary to the political deal, which aimed to reduce them to 15%.<\/p>\n<p>Negotiations also continue on which products may be eligible for exemptions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe fight for every product and every industry,\u201d a senior EU official said, adding: \u201cWe&#8217;re really trying to get as many products into the list of exemptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A joint EU-US statement\u00a0is expected to be released soon, aiming to reinforce the political commitments made on both sides of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p>Under the current framework, the US has agreed to apply a 15% tariff\u00a0on EU goods, while the EU has committed\u00a0to purchasing US energy\u00a0and investing in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 05\/08\/2025 &#8211; 17:10 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT The European Commission said on Tuesday it was surprised\u00a0by comments German&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[32,2000,7221,299,1824,1201,554,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-320178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-eu-policy","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-trade","14":"tag-trump-tariffs","15":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114976948451471863","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320178","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=320178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}