Donald Trump’s threat to impose 30% tariffs on European goods would “practically prohibit” transatlantic trade, the EU’s lead negotiator with the US has said.
Arriving for talks with European ministers in Brussels, Maroš Šefčovič, the EU trade commissioner, said a tariff of 30% or more would have a huge impact, making it “almost impossible to continue” current transatlantic trade, which is worth €4.4bn (£3.8bn) a day.
Expressing disappointment, he said his negotiating team thought they had been close to a deal. “The feeling on our side was that we are very close to an agreement,” as he said the two sides had been negotiating an agreement in principle – the outlines of a deal – for four weeks prior to Trump’s blunt announcement at the weekend.
The US president said on Saturday that EU imports would face a tariff of 30% from 1 August, denting European optimism that talks to secure a still painful 10% duty were almost finalised.
In response to Trump’s latest deadline, the EU decided to postpone retaliatory countertariffs on €21bn of US goods that had been due to kick in at midnight on Monday until 1 August.
Ministers will also discuss plans for a further round of countermeasures, targeting €72bn of US imports to the EU.
Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who will chair the talks, said Europe did not want a trade war with the US, which would be “devastating” for both sides. “We don’t want to escalate things then, on the other hand, we also need to flash some muscles,” he said.
France has called for an acceleration of preparations on countermeasures and said the EU should be ready to use its untested “anti-coercion instrument”, a law to impose punitive measures on a country seen to be using trade as a weapon.
Striking a different tone, Germany has called for a “pragmatic” response, while Italy has warned against a trade war. Countries in central and eastern Europe are also concerned that countermeasures could trigger a withdrawal of US military support in Europe.
Lithuania’s foreign minister, Keṣtutis Budrys, said the EU had to avoid escalation, citing “geoeconomic challenges” and “the issues that we have to solve together with the US, like fentanyl”.
Trump has accused Canada and Mexico of not doing enough to combat flows of the opioid into the US, although the issue is not known to have been a feature of EU-US trade talks.