President Trump is not a lover of the European Union. He has repeatedly claimed that the block was created for “fucking” America, it was obliged to hit large tariffs on his cars, and this week was brought by Global Steel and Aluminum for a payment that is expected to make about $ 28 billion from the export from the block.
But for months, EU officials have hoped that they will be able to bring in the US president, avoiding a painful trade war. They tried to accommodate the administration With simple victories -After a ramni European purchase of American natural gas-he pushes himself to make an agreement.
Now it becomes clear that things will not be so simple.
When the US tariffs were on steel, aluminum and products that use these metals on Wednesday, Europe responded by announcing the retreat of the retribution. The first wave will enter into force on April 1, imposing a tariff as much as 50 percent on products, including Harley Davidson Motorcycles and Kentucky Bourbon. The second wave will come in mid -April, targeting agricultural products and industrial goods that are important for the Republican district.
European officials were clear that they were not eager to take that aggressive step: they wanted to negotiate, and they still do it.
“But you need both hands to clap,” Maros Sefcovic, Minister of the European Commission, said on Wednesday. “A disorder caused by tariffs can be avoided if the US administration accepts our extended hand and works with us to make an agreement.”
Europe faces a difficult reality. It is not clear to many European officials what Mr. Trump wants. Tariffs sometimes explain administration officers as an effort to straighten out a playground but also cited as money tool for us the cash register payment of tax reduction or float as a way to punish the EU To regulate technological companies.
Mr. Trump said Europe “was not fair” with his trade practices. On average, European tariffs are just a little taller than US tariffs – an average of about 3.95 percent, compared to US 3.5 percent on European goods, based on Ing analysis. But the case is that certain products face significantly higher tariffs when shipped to Europe – for example, cars are targeted to 10 percent.
Mr. Trump also referred to the way Europe and other states tax producersAnd he suggested that future US tariffs would respond to these policies as well. Partly because of this, some tariff rates that floated – like 25 percent on cars – would be far beyond those he criticizes in Europe.
“We’ll bring back our wealth and we’ll bring a lot of companies going away,” Mr. Trump said on Wednesday. The US tariffs would echo foreign approaches, he said, although there will be “some cases where they are a little out of reciprocal.”
Nor did Trump’s administration emerge a wish of a wheel and an agreement. Mr Sefcovic went to Washington in February, but admitted that he had made a little progress on that trip. President Trump has not individually talked to Ursul von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, since he took over his duty.
Without a clear understanding of what is triggered by Mr. Trump, and without reliable intermediaries within the administration, it is difficult to understand how to make an agreement that will prevent pain for consumers and businesses.
“She doesn’t feel very transaction, she feels almost imperial,” said Penny Naas, a trade expert at the Marshall German Fund. “It’s not a giving and taking it – it’s a” gift “.
Because of this, the EU is now underlines that it can guess if it is forced, and that it will come if Trump’s administration continues with the additional tariffs she threatened. The block aims to retain its measures proportional to what they are doing now, in an effort to avoid the escalation of the conflict.
But she has been preparing for months for the possibility of comprehensive trade war, even if he hopes to avoid him.
“If they are progressing with them, we will answer quickly and strongly, as we have today,” said Olof Gill, a European Commission spokesman, during a press conference on Wednesday. “We have largely prepared ourselves for all these outcomes. Today we have shown that we can respond quickly, firmly and proportionally.”
The question is what could come next.
Mr. Trump promised additional tariffs to European goods including the so -called reciprocal tariffs That could come as early as April 2. He also spoke of a significant increase in tariff for certain products, such as a car.
“It will be 25 percent, generally speaking, which will be on cars and all other things,” Mr. Trump said in late February Comments In the oval office. “The European Union has been formed to fuck the United States. This is the purpose of it and they have done it well, but now I am president.”
European officials were clear that if things became bad enough, they could use a new tool to combat the CI that would allow them to set up tariffs or restrictions on the market companies. That could mean technological companies, like Google.
While Europe sells the United States more physical goods than it buys from it, it has a big deficit with the US when it comes to technology and other services, because Europeans are a large market for social media and other internet companies.
Mr. Sefcovic cited an anti-cooperation tool as a hypothetical option To “protect” the European market from external mixing and other European leaders were more vocals About the possibility that this is especially used in the United States.
But since Europe does not want to worse the trade war, hitting US technological companies is considered a tool for more extreme circumstances.
“It’s a more nuclear option,” said Carsten Brze, a global economist for Ing research.
For now, European officials hope that the threat of retaliation of tariffs will be sufficient to withdraw America towards the negotiating table. Measures are expected to hit products that are important in Republican strongholds: Bourbon from Kentucky, soybean from Louisiane.
While workers and companies stare at gloomy forecasts, the theory goes, they will invite their political contacts and press them to negotiate.
Pentecost industry – ready to hit 50 percent of whiskey tariffs strongly – has already expressed alarm. The industry was seriously influenced by an earlier and less extreme version of the removed tariffs during Mr. Trump’s first administration.
“The re -expression of these exhausting tariffs at a time when the ghost industry is still confronted with slowing down” “will” further reduce growth and adversely affect distillers and farmers in countries throughout the country, “said Chris SWONGER, Executive Director of Distilled Pentecost Council, Wednesday.
Political turbulence is already causing pain for some US companies. Tesla sales in Germany Poron in February And they collapsed across Europe, emphasizing anger at Elon Musk, executive director of the company and a close ally Mr. Trump.
However, the administration pointed to the willingness of accepting some economic pain in exchange for its long-term trade goals-which includes nothing but the rewriting of the rules of the global trade.
“There is a transitional period because what we do is very big,” Mr. Trump said in Interview at Fox News on Sunday.
In Europe, the world where Mr. Trump is bent in reorganizing the global order is treacherous. Conflicts that develop permanently undermine their most important commercial relationship, one who has long considered mutually useful, while harming his close alliance with the United States.
“There are no two economies integrated as the United States and Europe in the world,” Mrs. Naas said. “Separation at this point is not really an option, so we’ll get stuck in this tariff paradigm now.”
Ana Swanson contribute to reporting.
