EU remains "open for negotiatons" after Trump threatens new tariffs
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday that, despite US president Donald Trump's latest tariff threat, the EU remains "open for negotiatons". Trump wants to impose 200 per cent import duties on champagne, wine and other alcohol from the EU if it does not immediately lift tariffs on US whisky.
After US president Donald Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium imports, the bloc responded with its own import tariffs on US products, including whisky and motorbikes, which will take effect in April. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called them "strong but proportionate countermeasures".
But Trump disagrees. On the social media platform Truth Social, he said that if the EU did not immediately remove its tariffs on US whisky, the US would soon impose a 200 per cent tariff "on all wine, champagne and alcoholic products from France and other EU member states".
Another escalation
This further escalates the tariff war between the US and the EU. On Truth Social, Trump called the EU "one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the world", created solely to take advantage of the US.
Despite Trump's hostile comments, the EU remains willing to negotiate, according to von der Leyen. "We don't like tariffs because we think that tariffs are taxes, and they are bad for business and they're bad for consumers," she said on Thursday. "We have always said that we will (...) defend our interests," adding that the EU is "open for negotiations".
Von der Leyen said this at a press conference in Cape Town on Thursday. There, she and South African president Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the two partners were stepping up their cooperation. Both the EU and South Africa are currently victims of US tariffs.
However, von der Leyen's comments do not seem to have deterred Trump. During a meeting with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte at the White House, the US president said he would not back down from his tariff threats. "We've been ripped off for years, and we're not going to be ripped off," Trump said.
PHOTO © RODGER BOSCH / AFP
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