The European Commission said it would will react "firmly and immediately" against what it would consider “unjustified" barriers to free trade after US President Donald Trump said he would announce a 25 percent reciprocal tariff on European imports.
In his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said the European Union was created to “screw” the United States, and said a 25 percent tariff on some European imports was in the works.
The EU "will react firmly and immediately against unjustified barriers to free and fair trade," a European Commission spokesperson told the Reuters news agency in response to a request for comment on Trump's remarks.
"The EU will always protect European businesses, workers, and consumers from unjustified tariffs."
Tariffs on 'all of the things'
When asked about tariff levels on the European Union, after discussing levies on US neighbours Canada and Mexico, as well as China, Trump said:
"We have made a decision, and we'll be announcing it very soon, and it'll be 25 percent, generally speaking, and that'll be on cars, and all of the things."
This after he announced earlier this month tariffs on imported steel and aluminum coming from the EU and other countries.
Trump added that the EU was formed "in order to screw the United States. That's the purpose of it, and they've done a good job of it. But now I'm president."
Trump’s “America first” policy overrides decades of US support for European integration, with the formation of the European Union in 1993 seen as a historic achievement to end conflict on a continent ravaged by two world wars.
Trade trumps partnership
Now the focus is on trade. The US had a $235.6 billion (€225 billion) trade deficit with the EU last year, according to official US figures.
Trump’s trade advisers consider European value added taxes to be akin to a tariff.
However the EU considers its integration a boon to US interests.
"The European Union is the world’s largest free market. And it has been a boon for the United States,” the commission spokesperson said, adding that by creating a large and integrated single market, "the EU has facilitated trade, reduced costs for US exporters, and harmonised standards and regulations across 27 countries”, making European investments “highly profitable”.
EU leaders Monday, at a meeting in Brussels, said there would be no winners in a trade war with the US, warning of retaliation.
"If we are attacked in terms of trade, Europe - as a true power - will have to stand up for itself," French President Emmanuel Macron said.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said everything must be done to avoid a "totally unnecessary and stupid" trade war.
(with newswires)
