EU “react firmly” when Trump imposed tariffs

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The EU has declared that it will make the decision of US President Donald Trump, Canada, Mexico and China TariffsAnd said it would react firmly if a threat for the expansion of trade measures were fulfilled to Europe.

Trump triggered A Global trade war This weekend, the measures against three of the largest trading partners in the United States announced according to the EU, which has the largest trade deficit with Washington.

The EU has so far failed to do the Trump administration, although he said on Friday that he would do this “absolutely” and would repeat himself at the weekend that he would definitely act “.

“They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our agricultural products, they take almost nothing and we take everything from them,” said Trump reporters. “Millions of cars, enormous amounts of food and agricultural products.” He said there was no “timeline” for measures against the EU, but there would be soon.

A spokesman for the EU Executive said that the block and investment relationship of the block with the United States was the largest in the world and added: “There is a lot at stake.

“Tariff measures in general increase business costs, damage workers and consumers,” said the spokesman. “Customs do unnecessary economic disorders and promote inflation. They are hurtful for all sides. “

“At this point, we are not aware that additional tariffs for EU products are imposed,” said the Commission on Sunday. “However, the EU would react firmly to every trading partner who is unfair or arbitrary tariffs for EU goods.”

EU officials created EventY plans for a Trump trade war last summer.

The initial approach was to negotiate areas in which the EU could buy more US products such as liquefied natural gas and restrict the trade deficit that the president regularly decreases. Some capitals also set promises to increase their national defense spending to appease Trump, who wants NATO members to spend 5 percent of GDP for their military.

If all of these efforts fail, the commission’s trade department has spent months to create lists of US imports, which it could achieve with duties of 50 percent or more. Brussels has kept details of these retaliatory measures secret so as not to provoke Trump.

With confirmation hearings for Trump -Northerns in Washington, the EU trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, is “ready to get involved as soon as his colleagues are confirmed,” said an EU officer.

Klaas Knot, a member of the European Central Bank government council, said on Sunday that he was expecting the countries against US a trade war That would damage all sides.

“Europe will not want to be pushed around. We are also a strong trading block with 400 million consumers, ”said Knot, the President of the Central Bank’s Netherlands, on Sunday to Dutch television.

The French Prime Minister François Bayrou also asked the EU nations to spend when Trump continues his tariff threat. “If we look for our own interests, we will disappear,” he said on Sunday to La Tribune Zeitung.

“We have cards that we can play in the face of Trump’s America,” said Bayrou and mentioned French products “excess” – such as planes, helicopters and nuclear power plants.

Trump imposed the flat -rate tariffs against Canada and Mexico by referring to the law on international emergency management powers, which enables him to take measures to “an unusual and extraordinary threat” in response.

He would have to find reason to use the same tool against the EU, or to impose tariffs on certain industrialectors for security reasons, as he did in his first presidency.

Additional reporting from Leila Abboud in Paris