EU to hit US with $24.52bln tariff list
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 30 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and the EU starting on Aug. 1, after weeks of negotiations with major US trading partners failed to reach a comprehensive deal.
Tajani also told daily Il Messaggero that to help the euro zone economy the European Central Bank should consider a new 'quantitative easing' bond-buying-program, and more interest rate cuts.
The European Union said on Sunday it would extend its suspension of countermeasures to US tariffs until early August and continue to press for a negotiated settlement.
Tajani said the 21-billion-euro package of tariffs the EU has already prepared could be followed by a second set if a deal with the US proves impossible. He added, however, that he was confident that progress could be made in negotiations.
'Tariffs hurt every one, starting with the United States,' he said. 'If stock markets fall that puts at risk the pensions and the savings of the Americans.'
He said the goal should be 'zero tariffs' and an open market among Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday he would work intensively with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to resolve the escalating trade war with the United States.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Saudi Gazette
38 minutes ago
- Saudi Gazette
Trump says attorney general should release any 'credible' information on Epstein
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump has said Attorney General Pam Bondi should release "whatever she thinks is credible" on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as he faces a rare backlash from supporters after seeking to draw a line under the case. Bondi has been lambasted by some of Trump's political base after she said last week there was no evidence that Epstein kept a "client list" or was blackmailing powerful figures. At the weekend Trump urged supporters not to "waste time and energy" on the controversy. But allies of the president, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, are calling for "transparency". Epstein's 2019 death in a US prison while awaiting federal trial was ruled a suicide. But many in Trump's Make America Great Again (Maga) movement have theorised that details of the well-connected convicted paedophile's crimes have been withheld in order to protect influential figures, or intelligence agencies. On Tuesday, Trump praised his attorney general's handling of the matter, saying: "She's handled it very well, and it's going to be up to her. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release." When asked by a journalist if the attorney general had told Trump whether his name appeared in any of the records, he said: "No, no." Later on Tuesday, the president again called for the release of "credible" information, but he questioned the enduring fascination with the Epstein case, calling it "sordid but boring". "Only really bad people, including the fake news, want to keep something like this going," Trump said. Last week he vented frustration in the Oval Office about the fixation on Epstein and urged everyone to move on. But some Republican allies of the president are not letting go of the matter. In an interview on Tuesday with US conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Speaker Johnson said that he trusted President Trump and his team, and that the White House was privy to facts that he did not know. But he said Bondi "needs to come forward and explain it to everybody". "We should put everything out there and let the people decide," Johnson said in an interview. Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told Benny Johnson in a separate interview on Tuesday: "I fully support transparency on this issue." She praised Bondi's work as attorney general, but said that leaders and elected officials should keep their promises to voters. Another conservative Republican, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, said if more Epstein files were not released, a special counsel should be appointed to investigate the financier's crimes. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said the voters expect more accountability. "I think it's perfectly understandable that the American people would like to know who he [Epstein] trafficked those women to and why they weren't prosecuted," Kennedy told NBC News. But other influential Republicans – including Senator John Thune and congressman Jim Jordan – deferred to President Trump on the matter. At an unrelated news conference on fentanyl on Tuesday, Bondi brushed aside questions about the controversy. "Nothing about Epstein," she told reporters. "I'm not going to talk about Epstein." She said last week's memo by the Department of Justice, jointly released with the FBI, declining to release any further files on Epstein and confirming his death by suicide, "speaks for itself". Bondi told Fox News in February that a list of Epstein clients was on her desk for review, before her spokesman said last week she had actually been referring to overall files in the case. The government's findings were made, according to the memo, after reviewing more than 300 gigabytes of data. On Tuesday, House Democratic lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to force a vote on releasing Epstein files. Republicans pointed out the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, also had access to the files, but did not release them. — BBC
Saudi Gazette
38 minutes ago
- Saudi Gazette
Mike Waltz grilled over Signal leak at UN ambassador hearing
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump's former national security adviser Mike Waltz has faced scrutiny from US senators over his role in a sensitive Signal group chat in which officials discussed war plans. Waltz appeared before a hearing on Tuesday seeking Senate confirmation as Trump's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, following his removal from his former post in May. Under questioning from Democrats, Waltz maintained he did not share classified information in the chat, which accidentally included a journalist. The March incident, which became known as "Signalgate", threw the White House into turmoil and sparked a debate about the administration's cybersecurity. Waltz convened the group chat on Signal that also included Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as several other top administration officials to discuss an imminent strike on the Houthi rebel group in Yemen. The editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine, Jeffery Goldberg, was also added to the highly sensitive chat and ultimately reported on his participation, and the chat's the fallout, Waltz appeared on Fox News to take "full responsibility" for building the group chat, adding that it was "embarrassing". Waltz and the White House have maintained no classified information was shared in the was removed from his post in May by Trump who nominated him for US ambassador to the opposition from some Democrats, he will likely be confirmed since Republicans hold a majority in the US the hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, said he hoped to hear Waltz express "regret over sharing what was very sensitive, timely information about a military strike on a commercially available app."Signal was not "an appropriate, secure means of communicating highly sensitive information," Senator Coons said."That engagement was driven by and recommended by the Cyber Security Infrastructure Security Agency, by the Biden administration," Waltz responded. He argued that the use of Signal was "not only authorised" but "highly recommended.""This was demonstrably sensitive information," Senator Coons said, and asked Waltz if he was investigated for the expansion of the Signal group to include a journalist."The White House conducted an investigation and my understanding is the Department of Defence is still conducting an investigation," Waltz Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, also asked Waltz whether the Pentagon investigations into Secretary Hegseth were responded that he should not, and could not, comment on an ongoing investigation but maintained no classified information was contrast, Waltz's fellow Republicans on the committee largely avoided the Signal matter, instead focusing on US funding to the United Nations and asking how he would engage with China's rising Rick Scott, a Florida Republican who once served alongside Waltz in the US House of Representatives, called him a "man of integrity, grit, and principle."Waltz's nomination to be the US's lead envoy at the UN comes amid international uncertainty about America's role on the world stage and the strength of its commitments to foreign position would play a key role in representing US interests abroad at a time when the Trump administration has slashed billions in foreign aid and fired thousands of staffers at the State Department and US Agency for International Development (USAID).Senator Mike Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, asked Waltz about his "commitment to reviewing every dollar going to the UN to ensure our taxpayer dollars are being used wisely."In response, Waltz listed a series of international organisations and projects that he said the US helped fund that he believed deserved review, including several climate-focused entities like the UN Environment Programme, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, and more."I think it is incumbent on this administration to say, what's it doing, is it making us safer, stronger, and more prosperous, and are we getting enough bang for our buck," Waltz said. — BBC
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Russia May Hope To Use Trump's 50-Day Window To Wear Down Ukraine, But Quick Gains Seem Unlikely
President Donald Trump's ultimatum to Russia to accept a peace deal in Ukraine within 50 days or face bruising sanctions on its energy exports has given the Kremlin extra time to pursue its summer offensive. The dogged Ukrainian resistance however makes it unlikely that the Russian military will make any quick gains. President Vladimir Putin has declared repeatedly that any peace deal should see Ukraine withdraw from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured. He also wants Ukraine to renounce its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces – demands Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected. A chronic shortage of manpower and ammunition has forced Ukrainian forces to focus on holding ground rather than launching counteroffensives. But despite a renewed Russian push – and an onslaught of aerial attacks on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks – Ukrainian officials and analysts say it remains unlikely that Moscow can achieve any territorial breakthrough significant enough in 50 days to force Ukraine into accepting the Kremlin's terms anytime soon. Russia's main targets Since spring Russian troops have accelerated their land gains capturing the most territory in eastern Ukraine since the opening stages of Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022. Russian forces are closing in on the eastern strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region methodically capturing villages near both cities to try to cut key supply routes and envelop their defenders – a slow offensive that has unfolded for months. Capturing those strongholds would allow Russia to push toward Slovyansk and Kramatorsk setting the stage for the seizure of the entire Donetsk region. If Russian troops seize those last strongholds it would open the way for them to forge westward to the Dnipropetrovsk region. The regional capital of Dnipro a major industrial hub of nearly 1 million is about 150 kilometers (just over 90 miles) west of Russian positions. The spread of fighting to Dnipropetrovsk could damage Ukrainian morale and give the Kremlin more leverage in any negotiations. In the neighboring Luhansk region Ukrainian troops control a small sliver of land but Moscow has not seemed to prioritize its capture. The other two Moscow-annexed regions – Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – seem far from being totally overtaken by Russia. Early in the war Russia quickly overran the Kherson region but pulled back from large swaths of it in November 2022 retreating to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River. A new attempt to cross the waterway to seize the rest of the region would involve massive challenges and Moscow doesn't seem to have the capability to mount such an operation. Fully capturing the Zaporizhzhia region appears equally challenging. Russian attempts to establish a buffer zone Moscow's forces captured several villages in northeastern Ukraine's Sumy region after reclaiming chunks of Russia's Kursk region from Ukrainian troops who staged a surprise incursion in August 2024. Ukraine says its forces have stopped Russia's offensive and maintain a presence on the fringe of the Kursk region where they are still tying down as many as 10000 Russian troops. Putin recently described the offensive into the Sumy region as part of efforts to carve a buffer zone to protect Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks. The regional capital of Sumy a city of 268000 is about 30 kilometers (less than 20 miles) from the border. Putin said Moscow doesn't plan to capture the city for now but doesn't exclude it. Military analysts however say Russian forces in the area clearly lack the strength to capture it. Russian forces also have pushed an offensive in the neighboring Kharkiv region but they haven't made much progress against fierce Ukrainian resistance. Some commentators say Russia may hope to use its gains in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions as bargaining chips in negotiations trading them for parts of the Donetsk region under Ukrainian control. 'A scenario of territorial swaps as part of the talks is quite realistic,' said Mikhail Karyagin a Kremlin-friendly political expert in a commentary Wearing down Ukraine with slow pressure Ukrainian commanders say the scale and pace of Russian operations suggest that any game-changing gains are out of reach with Moscow's troops advancing slowly at a tremendous cost to its own forces. While exhausted Ukrainian forces are feeling outnumbered and outgunned they are relying on drones to stymie Moscow's slow offensive. Significant movements of troops and weapons are easily spotted by drones that are so prolific that both sides use them to track and attack even individual soldiers within minutes. Russian military commentators recognize that Ukraine's drone proficiency makes any quick gains by Moscow unlikely. They say Russia aims to bleed Ukraine dry with a strategy of a thousand cuts using relentless pressure on many sectors of the front and steadily increasing long-range aerial attacks against key infrastructure. 'The Russian army aims to exhaust the enemy to such an extent that it will not be able to hold the defense and make multiple advances merge into one or several successes on a strategic scale that will determine the outcome of the war' Moscow-based military analyst Sergei Poletayev wrote in an analysis. 'It's not that important where and at what speed to advance: the target is not the capture of this or that line the target is the enemy army as such.' Western supplies are essential for Ukraine Ukrainian troops on the front express exasperation and anger about delays and uncertainty about US weapons shipments. Delays in US military assistance have forced Kyiv's troops to ration ammunition and scale back operations as Russia intensifies its attacks Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Ukraine told The Associated Press. The United States will sell weapons to its NATO allies in Europe so they can provide them to Ukraine according to Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Included are Patriot air defense systems a top priority for Ukraine. Speeded-up weapons shipments from European allies are crucial to allowing Ukraine to stem the Russian attacks according to analysts. 'The rate of Russian advance is accelerating and Russia's summer offensive is likely to put the armed forces of Ukraine under intense pressure' Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute in London said in a commentary. 'But most of the capabilities that Ukraine needs – from drones to artillery systems – can be provided by NATO allies in Europe' he said. 'In the short-term Europe can cover most of Ukraine's needs so long as it can purchase some critical weapons types from the US' Watling said.
