EU leaders have made it clear that the bloc will be ready to respond if US President Donald Trump follows through on his threats to impose tariffs on European goods.
This is reported by The Guardian.
Thus, during a speech at an informal meeting in Brussels, EU leaders repeatedly called for calm and stressed the value of cooperation between the EU and the US. At the same time, they noted that they would not shy away from responding in the form of tariffs if such measures were used against them.
In particular, the head of the EU foreign policy department, Kaja Kallas, stated that the bloc was "listening carefully" to Trump's comments and was "preparing on our side" to respond if necessary. At the same time, she emphasized that "there are no winners in trade wars", and noted that China would be the only beneficiary of such a scenario.
French President Emmanuel Macron also said that if Europe is "attacked on trade... [it] will have to stand up for itself and therefore react."
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the EU must do everything possible to avoid "totally unnecessary and stupid tariff wars," adding that it would be a "cruel paradox" if the bloc were forced to engage in a trade war with a long-time ally.
Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that while she usually "never supports allies who are at war, if the US imposes tough tariffs on Europe, we need a collective and decisive response."
Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden also said that "the response to tariffs is the response to the same actions," but insisted that this should not overshadow today's defense debate.
At the same time, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that any tariffs would be "bad for the US and bad for Europe" and stressed the need for cooperation to resolve this situation.
And Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said: "We have to negotiate with Trump," and then added: "I'm not going to start a war, I want to start negotiations."
As we will recall, US President Donald Trump said that he plans to impose tariffs on goods and services supplied from the European Union.
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