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The European Union’s head of trading said that the 27-member block was obliged to maintain a trade agreement with the USA that is based on “respect” not “threats”.
After US President Donald Trump has threatened to hit a 50% tariff on all goods that have been sent to the United States by the EU.
“The fully committed EU, which has undertaken to ensure a deal that works for both,” said the EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic after a call with the US trade representative Jamieson Greer and trade, Howard Lutnick.
“EU-US trade is unsurpassed and must be guided by mutual respect and not by threats. We are ready to defend our interests.”
On Fridays on Friday, Trump impatiently expressed with the pace of continuing trade negotiations in EU-USA and said his plan to increase the tariff on June 1.
Trump write on social media: “Our discussions with [the EU] Nowhere to go, “adds that there would be no tariffs for products that are built or manufactured in the United States.
“I’m not looking for a deal – we have completed the deal,” he later told reporters before he immediately added that a large investment in the United States could make him open to a delay.
The EU is one of the largest trading partners in Washington and sends more than $ 600 billion last year (€ 528 billion;
The European governments reacted to Trump’s threats and warned that higher tariffs would damage both sides.
“We don’t have to go down this street,” said Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin. “Negotiations are the best and only sustainable path forward.”
The French Foreign Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said: “We will keep the same line: de-escalation, but we are ready to answer.”
German Minister of Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche said that the block had to “do everything” to achieve a solution in the United States.
While the Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof reporters said that he supported the EU strategy in trade talks and “we saw that the tariffs can go up and down in discussions with the USA”.
The EU is negotiating with the United States as a block, although Stephen Moore, a former economic advisor from Trump, who said BBC: “What can happen in Europe … is that we are trying to negotiate with countries in Europe individually.”
He added that Trump’s “ultimate goal really is to decouple not only the USA, but the whole world from Chinese influence, which would be a very good thing if he could do it”.
At the beginning of April, Trump announced tariffs against a long list of countries, including a tax of 20% for most EU goods that are sold to the USA.
Soon afterwards, the President stopped the higher tariffs for three months to enable more negotiations, but held a 10% property tax against the trading partners of the US trade.
Even higher US tariffs remained against China, although they were essentially reduced.
Despite Trump’s rise, the USA led a 25% tariff against EU steel and aluminum imports.
The EU threatened its own measures against the United States – and held -. It is said that it would be a tariff from 25% to € 18 billion ($ 20 billion;
It is currently also advising additional measures against US imports in the USA worth € 95 billion.
Trump’s complaints about Europe have focused on what he claims to be an unequal trade relationship – the EU sells more goods to the USA than buying it from America.
Trump accuses a trade deficit for guidelines, of which he claims that they are unfair to the American companies, and he has particularly expressed concerns about guidelines in connection with cars and agricultural products.
Trump also warned Apple that he would impose a 25% import tax “at least” iPhones that were not produced in America, which later extends the threat to every smartphone.
The stocks of the United States and the EU fell on Friday after the last threats, with the S&P 500 in America lowering about 0.7% and Dax and France CAC 40 decreased by more than 1.5%.