FLASH: President Donald Trump rejected suggestions from European Union (EU) officials of a zero-for-zero tariffs deal with the U.S. on certain sectors, such as autos and industrial goods.
Asked in the Oval Office on Monday if such an offer was good enough, Trump told reporters: “No, it’s not. The EU has been very tough over the years.”
Trump said the U.S. had been “paying them to guard them militarily” via NATO but “they’re screwing us on trade, so that’s not a good combination.”
“The European Union has been very bad to us,” Trump said. “They don’t take our cars, like Japan in that sense. They don’t take our agricultural product. They don’t take anything, practically. And yet they send millions of cars in a year,” reported Newsweek magazine in an overnight update.
The European Union (EU) has offered the United States a “zero-for-zero” tariff scheme for certain sectors of the economy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday, seeking to avoid a tit-for-tat trade war.
“We have offered zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods as we have successfully done with many other trading partners. Because Europe is always ready for a good deal. So we keep it on the table,” she told a press conference alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, reported Koen Verhelst, writing for POLITICO.
“We stand ready to negotiate with the U.S.,” she said.
President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on all US trading partners last week, including a 20% levy on the EU.
A minimum 10% duty took effect on Saturday, while all other tariffs – some of which range as high as 50% – are set to enter into force on Wednesday, reported Thomas Moller-Nielsen for Euractiv.
Clarifying, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said separately that the zero-for-zero deal could cover cars and all other industrial goods, such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, rubber and plastic machinery.
Although the EU offer of a zero-zero tariff agreement is encouraging some anti-Trump European leaders are putting politics before economic commonsense.
Aveek Banerjee, reported for News18.com that France’s trade minister urged the EU not to rule out an “extremely aggressive” trade response to Trump. Backed by Germany and Austria, France has been pushing for the EU to consider targeting US services, particularly tech.
This came after French President Emmanuel Macron urged businesses in the EU to halt spending on the US. “What would the message be of having big European players that invest billions in the American economy at the same time they are hitting us,” he said, describing Trump’s tariffs as “brutal and unfounded”.
France and Germany have specifically raised the possibility of deploying a new tool called the anti-coercion instrument (ACI), a trade weapon that has never been used and has been dubbed a “bazooka”.
Trump’s reasoning for the tariffs on EU goods is the bloc’s surplus in goods with the United States — meaning it exports more than it imports from the United States. EU officials have indicated the Europeans could target the US services surplus in response.
France is pushing for US digital services to be targeted, but this is fiercely resisted by Ireland, where many US tech firms, including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, have their European headquarters, reported Thomas Moller-Nielsen of Euractiv.
What’s more, Leaders of Sweden, Finland and Italy all emphasized that efforts must be made to avoid a trade war.
“We will do everything we can to work towards an agreement with the United States, with the goal of avoiding a trade war that would inevitably weaken the West in favor of other global players,” Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said according to reporting by the UK’s Independent.
After describing President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on imported goods from the EU as “unintelligent” and “a return to 19th-Century protectionism” it now appears the majority of the European Union’s members prefer negotiating a zero-zero free trade deal to a tariff war.
For his part, President Trump took to social media to rebut critics of his new tariff regime.
“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!” Trump said on Truth Social Alex Gangitano of The Hill reported.
He later said countries no longer will be able to abuse and take advantage of the U.S. with his tariff plan, which applied 10 percent tariffs to trading partners and additional higher tariffs to dozens of countries.
“Oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place,” Trump said on Truth Social.
He added, “This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its Tariffs by 34%, on top of its long term ridiculously high Tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate. They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA! Our past ‘leaders’ are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country.”
