MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Europe prepares retaliatory measures to Trump's tariffs

Von der Leyen suggested a defense alternative to NATO was needed

US President Donald Trump's announcement that he planned to impose tariffs on European products to even up the trade scale “would be illegal and economically counterproductive,” the European Commission (EC) warned in a statement. It would also affect international trade and production chains, it went on.

 “The imposition of tariffs would be illegal and economically counterproductive, especially considering the deeply integrated production chains that the European Union and the United States have established through transatlantic trade and investment,” the document also mentioned.

The EC also pledged to react “to protect the interests of European companies, workers and consumers against unjustified measures” should Trump's threat materialize and insisted there was no justification for Trump's stance. “Tariffs generate economic uncertainty and affect the efficiency and integration of global markets,” the EC further argued after Trump said he would impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum entering the United States which receives a quarter of Europe's steel exports.

In addition, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot urged Brussels to pass similar tariffs in retaliation. Trump “already imposed those tariffs in 2018 and then we replied; now we will hit back again,” he insisted.

It will be up to the European Commission to decide on which products it imposes those tariffs, Barrot added. He also denied wanting to start a trade war but “we should not have the slightest hesitation when our interests are damaged.”

Meanwhile, EC President Ursula von der Leyen suggested the continent should have a defense alternative beyond the US-controlled North American Treaty Organization (NATO).

In her view, Europe should take greater responsibility for its own security, particularly after Trump's demands for increased defense spending.

“NATO remains the foundation of our defense. But it is evident that we need a pan-European defense,” von der Leyen said in Lithuania on Sunday. “Modern warfare requires a scale, technology, and coordination too big for any one nation to handle alone,” she added.

French President Emmanuel Macron and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel were among the most vocal advocates for establishing an EU army. Macron recently announced that France would double its military budget and urged other EU states to follow suit, citing the possibility of dwindling US interest in European security after Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The French President also argued that China was a bigger problem for Trump than the EU. “Is the EU your first problem? No, I do not think so. Your first problem is China. So you should focus on the first problem,” Macron said in an interview with CNN.

“Europe is an ally for you. If you want Europe to be engaged on more investment, and security, and defense, if you want Europe to develop, which is I think the interest of the US, you should not hurt the European economies by threatening it with tariffs,” he added while noting that waging a trade war against the EU should not be among Washington’s top priorities, given the other challenges faced by the international community. “We have to fix Ukraine. We have a situation in the Middle East. We have this competition between the US and China,” he said.