\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s threatened 30% tariffs on European goods would eliminate transatlantic trade, the EU\u2019s chief negotiator with the US has said, while voicing hope that a deal remained possible.<\/p>\n
Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, the EU trade commissioner, said a tariff of 30% or more would have a huge impact, making it \u201calmost impossible to continue\u201d current transatlantic trade, which is worth \u20ac4.4bn (\u00a33.8bn) a day.<\/p>\n
After talks with EU trade ministers in Brussels, \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d said: \u201cWe want to use every day, every possibility and every minute until 1 August to find a negotiated solution.\u201d It was very obvious from the talks with the ministers, he went on, that a 30% tariff rate was \u201cabsolutely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a letter published on social media on Saturday, the US president said that EU imports would face a tariff of 30% from 1 August, denting European optimism that talks to secure a still painful 10% duty were almost finalised.<\/p>\n
In response to Trump\u2019s latest deadline, the EU decided to postpone retaliatory counter tariffs on \u20ac21bn of US goods that had been due to kick in at midnight on Monday until 1 August.<\/p>\n
Ministers also discussed plans for a further round of countermeasures, targeting \u20ac72bn of US imports to the EU, but did not reveal details.<\/p>\n
Before Trump\u2019s blunt announcement on social media, EU negotiators thought they were closing in on an agreement in principle, an outline deal that would set tariffs at 10%.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters, \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d expressed optimism an agreement could still be reached \u201cotherwise you would not spend three months on drafting an agreement in principle and going through 1,700 tariff lines discussing all details from agriculture to the spare parts of cars if this [would just] be ended by one \u2013 even though \u2013 very, very important letter\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, who is due to speak to US counterparts later on Monday, said he had been notified about Trump\u2019s Truth Social letter \u201cvery shortly before\u201d it was published.<\/p>\n
Denmark\u2019s foreign minister, Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen, who chaired the talks, said Europe did not want a trade war with the US, which would be \u201cdevastating\u201d for both sides. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to escalate things then, on the other hand, we also need to flash some muscles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister, rejected suggestions that the EU needed a new approach. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in the idea of escalating to de-escalate,\u201d he said, insisting there was \u201ca total unified approach among ministers that we should be ready to respond if needed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend the French president, Emmanuel Macron, called for an acceleration of preparations on countermeasures and said the EU should be ready to use its untested \u201canti-coercion instrument\u201d, a law to impose punitive measures on a country seen to be using trade as a weapon.<\/p>\n
After the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said a 30% tariff would \u201chit the German export industry to the core, the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Reuters on Monday that continued uncertainty about Trump\u2019s tariff policy could reduce Germany\u2019s exports to the US by almost \u20ac1bn a month.<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Merz has called for a \u201cpragmatic\u201d response, while Italy has warned against a trade war. Countries in central and eastern Europe are also concerned that countermeasures could trigger a withdrawal of US military support in Europe.<\/p>\n Lithuania\u2019s foreign minister, Ke\u1e63tutis Budrys, said the EU had to avoid escalation, citing \u201cgeoeconomic challenges\u201d and \u201cthe issues that we have to solve together with the US, like fentanyl\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump has accused Canada and Mexico of not doing enough to combat flows of the opioid into the US, although the issue is not known to have been a feature of EU-US trade talks.<\/p>\n While the UK is one of the few countries to have reached a trade deal with the US, it is not immune from any economic downturn in the EU, its largest trading partner.<\/p>\n Matthew Allen, a lecturer in economics at the University of Salford, said that UK consumers and businesses would face \u201csignificant ripple effects\u201d because of close ties to EU supply chains.<\/p>\n \u201cMany British firms import components and goods from the EU that are later exported to the US, meaning UK businesses could be indirectly hit by this tariff hike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump\u2019s threatened 30% tariffs on European goods would eliminate transatlantic trade, the EU\u2019s chief negotiator with the US has said, while voicing hope that a deal remained possible. Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, the EU trade commissioner, said a tariff of 30% or more would have a huge impact, making it \u201calmost impossible to continue\u201d current transatlantic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[689,3155,4030,4031,4032,72,430,81,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-10868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-chief","9":"tag-eliminate","10":"tag-euus","11":"tag-negotiator","12":"tag-sefcovic","13":"tag-tariffs","14":"tag-trade","15":"tag-trump","16":"tag-trumps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}