World News
EU will be reeling over how to tackle trade talks after Trump’s 30% tariff threat
Bloc had already backtracked from tough talk to seeking a bare bones deal – but US president has turned tables again
Second-guessing Donald Trump is a fool’s errand.
But Saturday’s shock threat to impose tariffs of 30% on the EU is a blow to the bloc’s confidence, which had already secretly capitulated during negotiations with diplomats revealing they had to sacrifice trade for the wider prize of security and defence of the continent.
It is worth pausing to consider what happened in the last three weeks in the EU. Up to the middle of June, Brussels had brandished its economic power in negotiations with €1.4bn (£1.2bn) at stake for one of the US’s most important trading partners.
Officials and diplomats were openly critical of the position Keir Starmer had taken in the UK, saying they would never sign up to a deal as thin as that involving just cars, beef, plane parts and ethanol. One questioned whether Westminster’s deal was even “legally implementable”. Another vowed: “We will never do a deal like Starmer.”
Another characterised the deal they wanted to land as “somewhere between rollover UK and retaliatory China”.
“If the EU doesn’t stand up to Trump or demand the rigours of rules, the question will be: what is left of the international rules-based system?” one diplomat told the Guardian, speaking of the risk to employment rights, free speech, social welfare and public care.
The tough talk even extended to threats of tax on services including X, Google and Microsoft alongside trade war stables such as cars and alcohol.
But by last week, the position had changed. The EU was going for a bare bones deal just like the UK, hoping for relief from the 27.5% tax on car exports, the 50% import duties on steel in exchange for a 10% tariff for most imports. The deal was put on Trump’s table and since Wednesday the EU has waited.
Sources: theguardian.com
