Germany urges tough EU response if 'fair deal' cannot be reached on US tariffs
Lars Klingbeil told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that 'serious and solution-oriented negotiations' with the US were still necessary, but added that if they fail, the EU would need 'decisive counter-measures to protect jobs and businesses in Europe'.
On Saturday US President Donald Trump announced that the EU and Mexico would be targeted with steep 30 percent tariffs as of August 1.
In the case of the EU, he cited the US's trade imbalance with the bloc as justification for the new levies.
Europe's biggest economy stands to be particularly affected by the tariffs, just as it was hoping to emerge from two years of recession.
Klingbeil said the tariffs would have 'only losers' and 'threaten the American economy at least as much as businesses in Europe'.
He said that 'Europe remains determined and united: we want a fair deal.'
'Our hand remains outstretched but we won't accept just anything,' Klingbeil said, and added that contingency measures in the case of no deal 'must continue to be prepared'.
Later on Sunday Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the ARD broadcaster that if the threatened tariffs came into effect they would 'overtake a lot of the efforts we have been making' towards reviving the economy and would 'hit our exporters to the core'.
Merz said he agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron, who said on Saturday the EU had to 'step up the preparation of credible countermeasures' in the event of no deal before August 1.
He said he had spoken to Macron, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Trump in the past few days and would 'engage intensively' to try to find a solution.
Merz emphasised that talks between the US and EU 'had been at quite an advanced stage' and noted that in other cases Trump had raised the possibility of such tariffs before a 'sensible solution' was reached.
'This is also what I am hoping for in the case of Europe,' he said.
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