CNN
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The European Union is getting ready countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 20% tariffs on imports from the bloc, which it known as a “main blow to the world financial system.”
The EU is a significant US buying and selling accomplice. Final yr, it was the most important single marketplace for US items exports, forward of America’s neighbors Canada and Mexico, based mostly on figures from the USA Census Bureau.
“President Trump’s announcement of common tariffs on the entire world together with the European Union is a significant blow to the world financial system. I deeply remorse this selection,” Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Union’s government arm, mentioned on Thursday, including the tariffs will likely be felt “instantly.”
Trump on Wednesday launched a historic international commerce struggle, asserting sweeping international tariffs on dozens of countries, from Nicaragua to Cambodia. The tariffs come on prime of beforehand imposed taxes on imports of metal, aluminum and vehicles.
“Let’s be clear-eyed in regards to the immense penalties. The worldwide financial system will massively undergo. Uncertainty will spiral and set off the rise of additional protectionism,” von der Leyen mentioned in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the place she is attending the EU-Central Asia Summit.
“All companies, large and small, will undergo from day 1, from large uncertainty to the disruption of provide chains, to burdensome paperwork. The prices of doing enterprise with the USA will drastically enhance,” she mentioned.
Whereas the European Union would favor to work with the US to cut back commerce boundaries, von der Leyen mentioned “Europe is able to reply.”
“We’re already finalizing the primary package deal of countermeasures in response to tariffs on metal, and we at the moment are getting ready for additional countermeasures to guard our pursuits and our companies if negotiations fail,” she added.
Final month, the EU responded to Trump’s metal and aluminum tariffs by unveiling countermeasures on as much as 26 billion euros ($28 billion) price of exports of American items, together with tariffs on boats, bourbon and motorbikes.
Each Europe and the US have lots at stake within the escalating commerce dispute. In 2024, America was the most important purchaser of European items, with imports starting from pharmaceutical merchandise and vehicles to alcoholic drinks and telecommunications tools, based on official EU data. The EU, in the meantime, was America’s greatest supply of products imports final yr, the US figures confirmed.
“Prior to now 80 years commerce between the European Union and the USA has created thousands and thousands of jobs,” von der Leyen mentioned on Thursday. “Shoppers throughout the Atlantic have benefitted from decreased costs. Companies have benefitted from enormous alternatives, resulting in unprecedented progress and prosperity.”
Nonetheless, she mentioned the worldwide buying and selling system has “critical deficiencies.”
“I agree with President Trump that others are taking unfair benefit of the present guidelines and I’m able to assist any efforts to make the worldwide buying and selling system match for the realities of the worldwide financial system,” von der Leyen mentioned. “Reaching for tariffs as your first and final device is not going to repair it.”
She careworn that the European Union is able to negotiate with the US, however Europe should rise up for itself.
“I do know that a lot of you are feeling let down by our oldest ally. Sure, we should brace for the influence that this may inevitably have. Europe has the whole lot it must make it by way of the storm. We’re on this collectively. In case you tackle one in every of us, you tackle all of us.”
