German minister: Services must be considered in tariff row with US
The European Union wants to include services in the tariff dispute with the United States to persuade US President Donald Trump to relent, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Sunday.
"We want to focus not only on the exchange of goods and products but also on services. And if you look at the whole spectrum, then the exchange between the United States of America and the European Union is quite balanced," Wadephul explained on German public broadcaster ZDF. "And if you take that into account, I believe we have good conditions to reach a reasonable conclusion."
The chairman of the Trade Committee in the European Parliament, Bernd Lange, had also hinted at this. The EU has a trade deficit with the US in services, Lange pointed out. This is mainly due to the high demand in Europe for the offerings of US digital companies like Google and Meta.
Trump justifies his tariff policy by stating that the US has a trade deficit in goods with the EU. Trump recently also announced a doubling of tariffs on aluminium and steel imports to 50%.
A spokesman for the European Commission threatened countermeasures over the weekend.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
10 minutes ago
- Forbes
Trump's Tariffs Are Slowing Down US and Global Economic Growth: OECD
The global economic growth is set to face a significant slowdown, with the U.S. economy being among the hardest hit, due to increased uncertainty around international trade over President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Tuesday. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs have begun slowing down the global economy, with the U.S. ... More projected to be among the worst hit. The OECD, an intergovernmental organization that includes 38 of the world's top economies, released its latest economic outlook report, which projects global economic growth will drop from 3.3% in 2024 to 2.9% in 2025 and 2026. This is a downward revision from the OECD's earlier projection of 3.1% growth in 2025 and 3.0% in 2026, released in March—which itself was a significant downward revision from December's forecasts. The second downward revision of growth forecasts is a result of 'rising trade costs' due to Trump's sweeping tariffs, which the OECD says are 'likely to fuel inflation.' The U.S. economy, in particular, is set to be among the hardest hit, with growth dropping from 2.8% in 2024 to 1.6% and 1.5% respectively in 2025 and 2026. Apart from the U.S., the OECD projects that most of the slowdown will be concentrated among Canada, Mexico, and China. China's growth is projected to slow from 5% in 2024 to 4.3% in 2026, while Canadian and Mexican economic growth will drop from 1.5% for both in 2024 to 1.1% in 2025. The OECD warned that further increases in tariffs by the U.S. government and retaliatory measures by trading partners could 'intensify the growth slowdown and trigger significant disruptions in cross-border supply chains.' The report notes that more tariffs and retaliation could further roil financial markets, 'prolong policy uncertainty' and 'weaken global demand for many key commodities,' among other things. For example, the report says if the U.S. raised tariffs further by an additional 10% on all other countries, global output could drop by 0.3% within two years, while American economic output would fall by 0.6%. President Donald Trump has not commented on the OECD's latest projections, but in a post on his Truth Social platform early on Tuesday, he wrote: 'Because of Tariffs, our Economy is BOOMING!' The president did not cite any data to back his statement. In the first quarter of 2025, the U.S. reported negative GDP growth for the first time since 2022. 'The global economy has shifted from a period of resilient growth and declining inflation to a more uncertain path,' OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. 'Governments need to engage with each other to address any issues in the global trading system positively and constructively through dialogue.'
CNN
16 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump's tariff fallout? It's worse than we previously thought, says OECD
President Donald Trump's trade war will wreak greater economic damage than previously expected, both in the United States and everywhere else, according to new forecasts by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In a report Tuesday, the group of 38 mostly wealthy nations sharply downgraded its 2025 economic growth forecast for America to 1.6% from the 2.2% projected in March and said growth would be even weaker next year. The report underscores the uncertainty and chaos around Trump's tariffs, as well as their potential to cause lasting harm across the world. The Paris-based organization cited higher tariffs, including retaliatory tariffs imposed on American exports, a slowdown in net immigration and a 'sizable reduction' in the federal workforce. The OECD also expects the global economy to slow markedly to 2.9% growth both this year and next — a downgrade from its prior forecasts of 3.1% and 3% respectively. That's based on the assumption that tariffs worldwide will remain at their mid-May levels, it said. 'The global economy has shifted from a period of resilient growth and declining inflation to a more uncertain path,' OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said in a statement. 'Today's policy uncertainty is weakening trade and investment, diminishing consumer and business confidence and curbing growth prospects.' In its Economic Outlook report, the OECD said it expects the slowdown to be 'concentrated' in the US, Canada, Mexico and China — four of the countries most affected by Trump's new tariffs. Since retaking office in January, the US president has hiked import duties on most of America's trading partners and on key goods, including cars and steel. Despite his tariff plan hitting a legal stumbling block last week, a round of punishingly high 'reciprocal tariffs' are due to whack many of America's trading partners from July 9 unless they can strike a deal with Washington. The tariffs, their erratic implementation and the unpredictability that both have injected into the global economy are weighing on many businesses and consumers. According to the OECD, the new US import taxes, in combination with retaliatory trade barriers erected by China and Canada, are 'pointing to much greater disruption than during the US-China trade tensions in 2018-19' — a reference to the trade war during Trump's first term. The OECD said new levies risk pushing up inflation in the countries imposing them and that central banks — which hike interest rates to slow price rises — should 'remain vigilant.' In contrast, Trump has publicly pressured US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut the cost of borrowing in America, while Powell has preferred to wait to see how the president's tariffs will impact the world's largest economy before deciding whether to cut or raise rates.
Washington Post
17 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Live updates: Trump re-ups July 4 deadline for passage of massive tax and immigration bill
President Donald Trump re-upped his call Monday night for Congress to send to his desk by July 4 the massive tax and immigration package that is pending in the Senate, saying in a social media post that lawmakers should work 'as fast as they can.' The bill, which contains an array of Trump's legislative priorities, narrowly passed the House last month and faces an uncertain path in the Senate, given reservations from a handful of Republican senators. Trump, who has stepped up lobbying of GOP holdouts this week, has no public events on his schedule Tuesday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is scheduled to brief reporters in the afternoon. The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are increasingly turning to work requirements as part of a wide-ranging effort to slash spending on welfare benefits — extending GOP messaging around waste and fraud to argue that many people who get federal aid don't deserve it. As Senate Republicans return to work on President Donald Trump's priority legislative package, they face a messaging battle on Medicaid that is fraught with potential pitfalls. They received a reminder of the perils Friday at an Iowa town hall, when Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) flippantly responded to an audience member who shouted out that people who lose coverage under the bill would die. The acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was joking when he said that he didn't know the United States had a hurricane season, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes FEMA, said Monday. David Richardson's comment to staff at a briefing Monday was first reported by Reuters and drew swift, concerned reactions from Democratic lawmakers. President Donald Trump on Monday evening joined a telephone rally to urge New Jersey voters to turn out for Jack Ciattarelli, who Trump suggested was the GOP's best shot at winning the state's governorship in November.
