BRUSSELS (Guardian) -- The EU will stand up for itself if its interests are targeted, Emmanuel Macron has said, as the bloc’s leaders urged talks but a firm response if needed to Donald Trump’s weekend threat to impose punishing tariffs.
“If our commercial interests are attacked, Europe, as a true power, will have to make itself respected and therefore react,” the French president said as he arrived for an informal defense meeting with other leaders in Brussels on Monday.
The latest “choices and statements” by the new U.S. president’s administration were “pushing the EU to be more united and more active to respond to issues of collective security”, he said.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said the EU was strong enough to react to any U.S. trade levies but “the goal should be that things result in cooperation”. The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said there would be “no winners in a trade war”.
Europe and the U.S. needed each other, she said, while the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said a trade war was “a complete mistake” and everything possible must be done to stop allies fighting “in the face of a Russian threat or Chinese expansion”.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said Copenhagen would generally “never support fighting allies”, but “[if the Trump administration imposed] tough tariffs on Europe, we need a collective and robust response”.
Trump imposed swinging tariffs on goods imported from Canada, Mexico and China on Saturday, sparking retaliation from all three countries. He said on Sunday night that new tariffs on the EU would “definitely happen”.
The U.S. president repeated longstanding complaints about the size of the U.S. trade deficit with the bloc and demanded Europe import more American cars and farm products. “It will definitely happen with the EU, I can tell you that,” he said.
Trump said there was no specific timeline for European tariffs but it was “going to be pretty soon”. He told reporters on Friday he would “absolutely, absolutely” impose them. “The European Union has treated us so terribly,” he said.
During his first term Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the EU, which retaliated with trade levies on
emblematic US goods from Republican states such as Harley-Davidson motorbikes, bourbon, denim and orange juice.
The European Commission said before Trump’s latest threat that it regretted his decision to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.
“Our trade and investment relationship with the U.S. is the biggest in the world,” a spokesperson said on Sunday. “There is a lot at stake. Tariffs create unnecessary economic disruption … and are hurtful to all sides,” they said, but the EU would “respond firmly to any trading partner that unfairly or arbitrarily imposes tariffs on EU goods”.
Leaders called for more dialogue with Washington. Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, said the EU and U.S. “need to work together constructively” on trade because protectionism would hurt citizens “wherever they reside”.
Finland’s prime minister, Petteri Orpo, also said Europe must negotiate with Trump on trade. “I am not going to start a war, I want to start negotiations,” he said, adding that the biggest threat to Europe was Russia.
Others attending the meeting stressed the need for a firm, united response. Luxembourg’s prime minister, Luc Frieden, said the answer to trade tariffs was to “reply with the same measures”, but tariffs were “always bad”.
Spain’s economy minister, Carlos Cuerpo, told RNE radio the EU was open to trade and in favor of a globalised market, but it should not be naive and would protect its companies to ensure they were in a position to compete on a level playing field.
The French industry minister, Marc Ferracci, told France Info radio on Sunday night that trade talks with Washington must embody “a form of power dynamic”. The bloc must wait for Trump’s final decision, but a response should be prepared now, he said.
To be effective, any response must “focus on products that are important” to the U.S. and be “biting” – meaning it must “have an impact on the American economy to have a credible threat in negotiations”.
Germany’s likely next chancellor, the conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz, said Trump would swiftly realize the tariffs he imposes “will not have to be paid by those who import into America … but by consumers in America”.
The governor of France’s central bank, François Villeroy de Galhau, said the tariffs Trump had already imposed were “brutal”. They would increase economic uncertainty and were a worrying development, he said.