EU ready to retaliate against Donald Trump’s tariffs, says Ursula von der Leyen

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The European Commission president said that the European Union is ready to take revenge on Donald Trump’s tariff by 20 percent, but he will first seek to negotiate a deal.

On Wednesday, Trump revealed a 20 percent tariff on the bloc as part of his “mutual” definitions against the largest commercial partners in America. Trump has long accused the European Union of “unfair commercial practices”.

Ursula von der Lin said on Thursday that the bloc was “ready to respond” to the American drawings, but it stressed that it preferred to negotiate “to remove any remaining barriers in front of the Atlantic trade.”

She said on a trip to Uzbekistan: “We are already summarizing a first package of anti -measures in response to steel definitions,” she said on a trip to Uzbekistan. “We are now preparing for more counter -measures, to protect our interests and our actions if negotiations fail.”

Brussels is scheduled to impose duties on up to 26 billion euros of American goods in response to steel and aluminum graphics on April 12. It has not yet been recovered compared to 25 percent of the exports of cars announced last week.

Von der Leyen offered the olive branch for TROMP, displacing that some countries “undertake an unfair feature” of global trade rules.

But “access to customs tariffs as a first or latter tool will not be suitable,” she said, warning that the definitions “will harm consumers around the world” and raise the cost of groceries, medicines and transportation.

“The global economy will suffer greatly,” she said.

Von Der Leyen pledged that the European Union “defends” targeted industries, including cars and steel and protecting its market from the pollinated goods that were forced to leave the United States market.

“We will closely monitor the indirect effects that these definitions can cause because we cannot absorb the global excessive capacity and we will not accept our markets.

“Europe has everything you need to make it through the storm,” she added. “We are in this together. If you take one of us, you are all taking us.”

But behind the scenes, the leaders were pressuring to ensure their industries were protected from revenge to anti -European measures. France has sought to cancel the proposed European Union measures against Borbon whiskey, while Ireland requested that dairy duties be dropped.

Prime Minister Italy, Georgia Meloni, Trump’s ally, said earlier that the customs tariff “does not fit any of the two parties” and that it will seek an agreement with the United States “to prevent a trade war.”

Trump accused the European Union of targeting the United States of a valid tariff rate of 39 percent, the number that the committee sets about 1 percent.

The US President was based on this number on other factors such as value -added tax, which amount to 27 percent in some member states, and the restrictions imposed on imports of chlorine washed chlorine and other agricultural commodities.

The White House also aims to organize the mass of technology and digital tax companies.

The European Union exported 503 billion euros from goods to the United States in 2023, running a surplus of 157 billion euros. But she had a deficit of 109 billion euros in services.

The European Union can target American services, such as the suspension of some intellectual property rights and the exclusion of companies from public purchasing contracts under the organization of their enforcement.

The step will be the first use of the “anti -sustenance” tool. But any measures require a weighted majority of member states to agree.

Simon Felit, a professor at the IMD College of Business, said that the European Union’s dependence on the American military power to deter Russia and its lack of alternative markets to limit the ability of the bloc to respond.

He said: “European commercial revenge is an imaginary drug, and it provides an illusion of determination while the priorities of the first -class retreat and diversification of export are still not addressed.”