European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of a 20 percent tariff on EU goods and vowed to retaliate.
Trump dumped the European Union on Wednesday into a group of 60 countries subject to higher “reciprocal” tariffs, along with China, India, Japan and Korea, while subjecting the rest of the world to 10 percent tariffs. It’s the biggest lurch into protectionism by America since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Von der Leyen said Trump’s tariffs would hurt consumers and businesses that have prospered through trade with the United States since World War Two. The European Union, the world’s largest single market, must also defend itself against profound disruptions to global commerce that would result from Trump’s isolation of the United States.
“There seems to be no order in the disorder. No clear path through the complexity and chaos that is being created, as all U.S. trading partners will be hit,” she said in a televised statement.
The EU chief executive said the bloc would ready countermeasures against Trump’s latest tariff broadside, in addition to a €26 billion package responding to tariffs he has already imposed on steel and aluminum. At the same time, she vowed, Brussels will work to protect the industries most exposed.
“We are already finalizing the first package of countermeasures in response to tariffs on steel, and we are now preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail,” von der Leyen said from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where she was attending a summit.
“We will also be watching closely what indirect effects these tariffs could have. Because we cannot absorb global overcut capacity, nor will we accept dumping on our markets,” von der Leyen said, as the bloc braces for a flood of cheaper exports coming from China and elsewhere that are will be shut out of the U.S. market.
She warned of the impact Trump’s dismantling of the global trade order will have on consumers and on businesses. “Millions of citizens will face higher grocery bills. Medication will cost more, as well as transportation. Inflation will go up,” she said.
“The costs of doing business with the United States will drastically increase,” she stressed.
ING bank on Wednesday reduced its forecast of GDP growth for the eurozone to 1 percent, instead of a forecasted growth at 1.4 percent for 2026.
Von der Leyen stopped short, however, of triggering immediate countermeasures on behalf of EU member countries, which the Commission represents in trade matters. Maroš Šefčovič, her trade negotiator, will meet with the EU’s 27 ambassadors on Friday.
On Wednesday, Trump dumped the European Union in the worst category of America’s trade partners, hitting the bloc with a 20 percent tariff on all imports. The U.S. president said the EU was “ripping off” the United States, adding it was “pathetic.”
“Now we’re going to charge the European Union. They’re very tough. Very, very tough traders. You know, you think of the European Union, very friendly. They rip us off. It’s so sad to see. It’s so pathetic,” Trump said in the White House Rose Garden.
Trump said he was declaring a national emergency to impose a 10 percent tariff on imports from all countries. Aside from that, he imposed higher, individualized tariffs on approximately 60 countries that the United States views as the worst trade offenders.
(This story is being updated.)
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