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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
However, many EU diplomats do not consider counter-tariffs as the greatest tool to exert pressure, as experts believe the US would feel them less than the Europeans.
"Our discussions with them are going nowhere." With these harsh words, US President Donald Trump explained why he wants to impose 50% import tariffs on goods from the European Union as of June 1.
EU negotiators and even the US vice president had recently expressed hope for a consensual solution: he hoped the talks would be “the start of long-term trade negotiations,” Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, said in a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Rome on Sunday. Five days later came the big blow!
Just empty words?
Last Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's Vice President JD Vance gave Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hope for a deal.
It is also clear that Trump is accepting punitive tariffs on US exports to the EU in return. Because Brussels now has no choice but to work with the list of US products that the EU Commission has targeted in an emergency.
In addition to cars, planes and vehicle parts, Von der Leyen's list includes numerous agricultural products, raw materials and mechanical equipment. It ranges from crude oil and coal to dental equipment, condoms and wigs.
It has already been decided: in the first step, tariffs on Harley-Davidson motorcycles and jeans, in the second step on foods such as beef, poultry or citrus fruits such as oranges or grapefruit, and in the third step on nuts and soybeans.
American whiskey and other spirits, as well as dairy products, were originally supposed to be exempt from the tariffs. But whether that's still true in light of Trump's slap is entirely unclear.
However, many EU diplomats do not consider counter-tariffs as the biggest tool to exert pressure, as experts believe the US would feel them less than the Europeans. But taxes on services from American digital giants such as Google, X (Twitter), Amazon or Facebook.
The EU still sees room for negotiations
Initially, the EU Commission was silent during the afternoon. They want to wait for a phone call between the responsible Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and his American negotiating partner Jamieson Greer. Maybe the last word has not been said yet? The Polish government, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, stressed that negotiations are continuing.
The chairman of the European People's Party (Conservatives), the vice-chairman of the CSU, Manfred Weber, told the BILD newspaper that "we must not fall prey to Trump's provocative negotiating strategy, but continue to follow our line. On the one hand, we must be ready to talk, but also determined in favor of countermeasures. The EU and the US are almost equally large economically, so we will not allow ourselves to be forced."
Trump now thinks he "cannot divide the EU."
According to EU MEP Markus Ferber, Trump would hurt his own country first with the tariffs. Ferber told Bild that “this is another nail in the coffin of the competitiveness of the American economy.”
Daniel Caspary, leader of the CDU/CSU group in the EU Parliament, spoke of Donald Trump's "ghost trip" on trade policy. For the Greens, Anna Cavazzini, spokeswoman for EU-US trade relations, called Trump's tariff threat an "attempt at blackmail" to which the EU should not give in. /Adapted from Pamphlet from Bild/
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