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The EU is ready to retaliate against the 20% prices of Donald Trump, but will first seek to negotiate an agreement, said the president of the European Commission, because she warned that the world “suffered massively” from American movements.
Trump unveiled on Wednesday 20% of the rates on the block as part of his “reciprocal” prices against the largest American trade partners. Trump has long accused the EU of “unfair commercial practices”.
Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday that the block was “ready to respond” to American samples, but stressed that he preferred to negotiate to “suppress the remaining obstacles to transatlantic trade”.
“We are already finalizing a first pack of countermeasures in response to steel prices,” she said during a trip to Uzbekistan. “We are now preparing for new countermeasures, to protect our interests and companies if negotiations fail.”
Brussels should impose tasks up to 26 billion euros in American goods in response to steel and aluminum prices on April 12. He has not yet responded against 25% prices on car exports announced last week.
Von der Leyen offered a branch of olive tree to Trump, conceding that some countries “benefited an unjust advantage” of global trade rules.
But “reaching prices as the first and last tool will not repair it,” she said, warning that prices “would injure consumers around the world” and increase the cost of grocery store, drugs and transport.
“The world economy will suffer massively,” she said.
Von der Leyen has sworn that the EU “would” defend “the targeted industries, including cars and steel and protect its market against forced goods for the American market.
“We will also closely monitor the indirect effects that these prices may have because we cannot absorb global overcapacity and we will not accept the spill on our markets.
“Europe has everything it needs to cross the storm,” she added. “We are in the same direction together. If you take one of us, you all take yourself. ”
Behind the scenes, however, the leaders made lobbying to ensure that their industries are protected from reprisals for the EU countermeasures. France has sought to remove measures proposed by the EU against Bourbon whiskey, while Ireland has requested the abolition of dairy tasks.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, an ally of Trump, said earlier than the prices “are not suitable for any of the parties” and that she would seek an agreement with the United States to “prevent a trade war”.
Trump accused the EU of targeting the United States with a price rate of 39%, in fact, a figure that the Commission puts at around 1%.
The American president has based this figure on other factors such as VAT, which reaches 27% in certain Member States and restrictions on imports of chicken washed with chlorine and other agricultural products.
The White House also aims to regulate the block of technological companies and digital taxes.
The EU exported 503 billion euros in goods to the United States in 2023, which made a surplus of 157 billion euros. But he had a deficit of 109 billion euros in the services.
The EU could target American services, for example by suspending certain intellectual property rights and excluding companies from public procurement contracts under its regulation of application.
A step further would be the first use of his “anti-coercion” instrument. But all measures would require a weighted majority of Member States to agree.
Simon Evenett, professor at IMD Business School, said that EU dependence on American military power to dissuade Russia and its lack of alternative markets limited the capacity of the block to react.
“Reprisals of European trade are a placebo, offering the illusion of resolution while the priorities of the rearmament and the diversification of first-rate exports remain unanswered,” he said.
