EU readies €20 billion retaliation in opposition to Trump’s tariffs – DW – 04/09/2025 | EUROtoday

“We don’t want to have to respond, but at the risk of sounding like my three-year-old son: They started it.” That’s how Olof Gill, a spokesperson for the EU Trade Commissioner, just lately summed up the 27-nation bloc’s perspective towards Donald Trump’s transfer to impose tariffs on European imports.

On Wednesday (April 9), EU diplomats agreed on what their response will appear to be, saying tariffs totaling greater than €20 billion ($22 billion) on US exports.

Calling the US tariffs “unjustified and damaging, causing economic harm to both sides,” the EU Commission mentioned in a press release that it has a “clear preference to find negotiated outcomes … which would be balanced and mutually beneficial.”

As Europe remains to be weighing up how a lot muscle to wield in its broader retaliation, the bloc’s countertariffs will apply in three rounds, the Commission mentioned.

Measures overlaying €3.9 billion in commerce will go into pressure subsequent week, with an additional €13.5 billion from mid-May and a ultimate spherical of €3.5 billion following in December.

From soybeans to metal

EU diplomats confirmed to DW that the primary batch of countertariffs of as much as 25% will goal US metal and aluminium, and a collection of meals merchandise together with poultry, nuts and soybeans.

With an obvious give attention to hitting the heartlands of Trump’s Republican get together, the tariffs checklist additionally features a host of different objects from bikes to denims, with the intention of creating the products costlier and fewer enticing for European consumers.

“The lion’s share of the list consists of products that are easy for consumers and businesses to replace,” Sweden’s Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa instructed reporters in Brussels.

The first spherical of tariffs will go into pressure subsequent week and comes  in response to US metal and aluminium tariffs introduced final month, predating Trump’s larger order on so-called reciprocal tariffs.

Duties on soybeans and almonds — which deal a much bigger blow to US producers — will kick in late within the 12 months. While diplomats mentioned the delay was extra authorized than political, it offers Brussels respiration area as seeks to barter a take care of Washington to keep away from a full-blown commerce battle.

Deal or no deal?

EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic has been on and off planes and telephone calls to Washington for weeks attempting in useless to safe a deal to avert tariffs. After Brussels went public with its provide to scrap all duties on automobiles and industrial items earlier this week, Trump was fast to show it down.

The EU Commission reaffirmed on Wednesday that the countermeasures could possibly be “suspended at any time.”

But Cinzia Alcidi, an analyst with the Centre for European Policy Studies, thinks the “crude” approach US tariffs have been calculated suggests the Trump administration has “no real interest in any meaningful give-and-take.”

Alcidi suspects solely extra US home stress will put the US president in additional of a deal-making mindset. “Tariffs, which are fundamentally a tax on domestic consumers, will lead to higher prices. Businesses, especially those reliant on imported components, will also struggle,” she wrote on Tuesday.

“If inflation climbs and public dissatisfaction grows, Trump’s approval ratings may dip, and unease within Congress may grow louder.”

US tech, providers subsequent in line?

But a lot of the ache may also be felt in Europe, says Niclas Poitiers, as companies and voters are rising “nervous.”

“I think there’s a balance to be struck between the necessity to react strongly and the need to show that one is problem-oriented and one doesn’t want to escalate,” the analysis fellow at Brussels-based suppose tank Bruegel instructed DW.

As Europemulls longer-term retaliation choices, US providers exports, together with these of Big Tech platforms or consulting corporations, might transfer within the EU’s focus.

Sometimes known as Brussels “nuclear option” within the commerce battle, the EU’s so-called Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) “allows [the EU] to do many more things than the normal trade war would allow you to do,” mentioned Poitiers.

ACI — created in 2023 in response to China’s block on Lithuanian imports over its assist for Taiwan — it could permit the EU to impose restrictions on US banks, curb income entry for streaming platforms like Netflix, and even revoking US patents.

But an EU diplomat instructed DW there’s “no appetite to pull that trigger for now,” including that any speak of focusing on tech stays “in the realm of speculation.”

China tariffs stoke fears in Europe

A extra urgent worry for the EU is a attainable inflow of low cost items from China and different Asian nations as they wish to new markets outdoors the US.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned the issue on the telephone with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday.

According to a abstract printed by Brussels, they talked a few “mechanism for tracking possible trade diversion and ensuring any developments are duly addressed.”

Edited by: Uwe Hessler