Morning opening: EU scrambles to respond to Trump's 'prohibitive' tariffs threat
EU ministers are meeting this morning for urgent talks after the US president, Donald Trump, threatened to impose 30% tariffs on the bloc – despite what they believed were promising talks with the US administration on how to avoid them.
But in a letter issued over the weekend, Trump said:
“We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies, and Trade Barriers …
Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”
Over the weekend, EU leaders, including the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, led political reactions to the announcement.
As my colleague Lisa O’Carroll reported over the weekend, Macron said the EU should be ready for a trade war and to stand up to the US president, who was only last week expected to approve a 10% tariff agreement in principle with the bloc.
But the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who enjoys good relations with Trump, said in a statement she trusted “a fair agreement” could be reached. “It would make no sense to trigger a trade war between the two sides of the Atlantic,” she said.
The EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, was far more blunt this morning.
Arriving for talks with EU foreign and trade ministers, he said:
Let’s be honest, the idea of 30% tariff rate is effectively prohibitive to the mutual trade.
He added that such tariffs would make it “almost impossible to continue the trading as we are used to,” with supply chains on both sides of the Atlantic “heavily affected” by the change.
Šefčovič said the bloc noted Trump’s letter with “regret and disappointment,” but promised to engage further with his US counterparts on Monday to try to find a way out of this crisis, saying he “cannot imagine walking away without genuing effort.”
“I will be discussing with ministers the next steps for the upcoming weeks.
I see these focused on four areas: negotiations, rebalancing measures, engagement with like minded partners, and diversification of our trade.”
Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen warned:
Our trade relations with the US are on a critical juncture.
Let’s see what the day brings here.
We are also expecting significant updates on Ukraine, with Trump promising a “major statement” on Russia when Nato secretary general Mark Rutte visits Washington today, which is expected to include an announcement on much-awaited new Patriots missiles for Kyiv.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is in Ukraine, and German defence minister Boris Pistorius is also in Washington.
It’s Monday, 14 July 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
