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Europe Lines Up Behind Powerful Trade Tool in US Fight

Europe Lines Up Behind Powerful Trade Tool in US Fight

Bloomberg16-07-2025
If Donald Trump follows through on his latest deadline when it comes to tariffs, a growing number of European Union member states want the bloc to activate its most powerful trade tool against the US. Trump has repeatedly delayed his threatened levies, a pattern of behavior that's generated the now-famous TACO meme. Now he has pledged to impose 30% tariffs on the EU if no deal is reached by Aug. 1. And this time, his aides have said, he means it.
It would seem Europe is taking him at his word. A French-led charge to deploy the bloc's so-called anti-coercion instrument is said to be backed by more than half a dozen European capitals. Benjamin Haddad, France's minister for European affairs, said earlier this week that the response from Brussels should include the option of using the tool, which gives officials broad powers to take retaliatory action. Those measures could include new taxes on US tech giants or targeted curbs on US investments in the EU.
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