Trump announces new US tariffs to EU imports-politicians are calling for measures

“Brazen and disrespectful”

Politicians are calling for countermeasures to Trump’s EU-Zölle

The EU had hoped for a trade agreement, but now US President Trump announces new tariffs. A US neighboring land is also affected.

The US government wants to prove goods from the EU from August 1st with an import customs of 30 percent. This emerges from a letter from President Donald Trump, which he published on Saturday at his short message service Truth Social. In the event of countermeasures, Trump threatened further customs increases. In another letter, he also threatened the neighboring country Mexico with the same duty.

The EU had hoped for a comprehensive trade agreement with the USA. The United States is the most important trading partner for Germany. With his customs policy, the Republican wants to correct alleged trade weights and achieve that more is produced in the United States. In the global customs conflict, Trump initially set a deadline for new tariffs until July 9 and extended it to August 1st days ago. In the past few weeks, the United States had spoken to many countries.

According to the government, the measures do not affect certain industries – including cars and steel. When asked whether imports to certain product groups such as cars, steel and aluminum are excluded, the White House announced at the request of the German Press Agency: “Correct, sectoral tariffs are treated separately and not cumulative.” So far, the United States has shown imported EU cars and auto parts with a duty of 25 percent, and 50 percent for steel and aluminum imports.

In the past few days, US President Trump had announced a number of new tariffs against certain countries, most recently for imports from Canada and Brazil. According to a spokesman, the US government informed the EU in advance about the announcement of the special tariffs.

In the middle of the week, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen carefully expressed the prospect of setting up the customs conflict. At the same time, she had made it clear that the EU was also prepared for the option of a further escalation of the trade dispute and that she prefers not to have a deal rather than bad.

Now she warns that 30 percent tariffs on EU exports would sensitively disrupt transatlantic supply chains. The EU has always sought a negotiating solution with the USA, explains von der Leyen. It was ready to continue working on an agreement until August 1st. If this does not succeed, the EU will take all the necessary steps to protect your interests, including countermeasures.

The Leyen emphasized that only a few economies worldwide would be open to fair trade practices in their openness and obligation at the same level with the European Union. The EU has always sought a negotiating solution with the United States.

France President Emmanuel Macron demanded the accelerated preparation of European countermeasures. To do this, the EU Commission must mobilize all the instruments available to it, including the mechanism to combat compulsory measures, if no agreement is reached by August 1st, Macron said via short message service X.

“In European unity, it is more than ever the task of the Commission to reaffirm the Union’s determination of determining the European interests,” said the President. On this basis, France supports the EU Commission in the negotiations in order to achieve an agreement that is acceptable to both sides by August 1, which reflected the respect, which trading partners such as the EU and the USA elevated with its common interests and integrated value chains.

The chairman of the trade committee in the European Parliament, Bernd Lange (SPD), describes the letter from US President Donald Trump as an “insolence”. The United States was accommodated in many respects during the negotiations, he told the Reuters news agency. It is now “brazen and disrespectful” to increase the announced tariffs to 30 percent, and a “slap in the face” for the negotiations. He was of the opinion that “we should no longer wait, but use our economic strength to make it clear that these unfair trading practices are unacceptable,” he continues. “The first list of compensatory measures must finally be activated on Monday as planned, and the second list should also follow quickly.”