EU hits back at Trump tariffs and warns against trade war happymamay

In Brussels, it was after 06:00 on Wednesday. But midnight was in Washington, DC, when President Donald Trump’s tariff entered a 25 % on steel and aluminum, in effect on the main American commercial partners.

It took less than 10 minutes until the European Union responded.

“The definitions are taxes,” said Ursula von der Lynne, head of the European Commission.

The initial anti -Union anti -Union procedures are in effect on American products on April 1, Starting with jeans and motorcycles to peanut butter and bourbonJust as they were with the first tariff for the Trump administration in 2018 and 2020.

But there will be more to come in mid -April. A full range of textiles, home appliances, food and agricultural products can be included, depending on a two -week advice with stakeholders.

A list of almost 100 pages is generalized, which feature meat, dairy, fruits, wine, spirits, toilet seats, wood, coats, swimwear, day, shoes, chandeliers and weeds distributions.

For consumers, higher prices are waving on the horizon on supermarkets in Europe, especially for American products. But for companies and some industries, especially steel, there is a real danger.

The President of the BGA Federation in Germany in foreign trade and foreign trade, Derk Gandora, warned that the Germans may have to search in their pockets to pay the price of American products in supermarkets.

Orange juice, bourbon and peanut butter were one of the most hit products. “The margins in the trade are very low so that companies cannot absorb,” he said.

In total, the European Union will target 26 billion euros (22 billion pounds) of American exports.

“We will not go to the assumptions other than saying that we are preparing hard for all these results,” said Ulof Jill, a spokesman for the European Union.

Antonio Costa, President of the European Union Council, called on the United States to cancel the escalation, although there was only a sign of this on Wednesday, as Trump pledged to respond to the European Union measures.

“We have been abused for a long time and we will not be abused,” he said.

Also in Austria, there was anxiety about the escalation.

“The United States is the second most important export market for Austrian products after Germany – and most importantly for Germany,” said Christophe Newmaire, President of the Austrian Federation of Industries. “It was necessary for Europe to behave together and decisive,” he added.

A European Union official indicated that products such as soybeans and orange juice can be easily obtained from Brazil or Argentina, so consumers will not be severely exposed.

There was a suggestion that some of the targeted American exports were also from the United States under the control of the Republicans: soybeans from Louisiana or meat from Nebraska and Kansas.

A relatively large number of American exports enter the European Union through the Dutch port of Rotterdam or Antwerp in Belgium.

Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Dirk Bilgres said that no one was standing to benefit from the “war of tariffs”, but he was hoping that his country’s economy would not severely hit: “He has an impact on companies and consumers – especially consumers in the United States.”

One of the areas that will be hit hard on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in the drink sector.

Pauline Bastedon said that the European Union producers and the United States are standing united, with the dangers facing European companies that produced the lives of the United States and American companies that have been intended extensively in Europe.

Chris Sunger, of the Crotide Council in the United States, said that in the three years that have passed since the 25 % European Union tariffs were suspended on the American whiskey, the American distillery was “working hard to restore the strong foot in the largest export market.”

Refractions from April 1 was “very disappointing” and He called for a return to a tariff “zero for scratch”.

For COGNAC producers in France, the probability of import tax in the United States by 25 % also represents a major problem because most of their products are intended for export, whether for the United States or China.

French producers have already been exposed through Chinese measures That slapped heavy taxes on your code.

“Moral spirit in dumps,” Bastian Prosaviro of the France Info.

He says: “Thousands of jobs are at stake in the Charrent region alone, he says:” Conney is a product that has been exported. “

There was a very terrible warning from the President of the European Steel Association, Henrik Adam.

He warned, “President Trump’s policy” America first “threatens to be a final nail in the coffin of the European steel.”

Trump’s initial tariff for European steel in 2018 witnessed steel exports in the European Union to the United States with more than a million tons, and for all three tons of steel that did not enter the United States, two -thirds of which entered the European Union instead.

“These new measures imposed by Trump are more comprehensive, and therefore the effect of American definitions is likely to be much larger.”