Europe issues severe warning to Trump with 'strong plan' to retaliate against his tariffs
Topics: Donald Trump, News, US News, Politics
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/JOHN THYS
Topics: Donald Trump, News, US News, Politics
European nations have said they have a 'strong plan' in place to counter the expected tariffs Trump is set to unveil.
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, he has made it clear he wanted to do things differently to ‘make America great again’.
So far, this has taken the form of levying tariffs on the country’s neighbors and allies, most notably Canada and Mexico.
As well as this, on March 26, Trump revealed a 25 percent tariff on imports of 'automobiles and certain automobile parts'.
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However, the President has also said he has plans for his European allies and has previously promoted April 2 as ‘Liberation Day’ for America.
This date is when a number of hefty tariffs are expected to be unveiled in order to implement his economic agenda.
In a speech, the president of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen, outlined how the bloc would be responding to these moves from Trump.
She said: “Europe has not started this confrontation.
“We do not necessarily want to retaliate but, if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it."
On March 31, the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that Trump would be holding a press conference on April 2 to unveil his plans however she did not go into detail as to what these may be.
Despite warning Trump of retaliation, Von der Leyen also said that Europe was ‘open to negotiations’ to find a satisfying middle ground.
She added: “We will approach these negotiations from a position of strength. Europe holds a lot of cards, from trade to technology to the size of our market.
“But this strength is also built on our readiness to take firm countermeasures if necessary. All instruments are on the table.”
Trump advisors are considering plans to impose 20 percent tariffs on nearly all the countries the US trades with, according to sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal.
But it seems as if not all of those close to Trump are onboard with this."No one knows what the f**k is going on," a White House ally told Politico.
"What are they going to tariff? Who are they gonna tariff and at what rates? Like, the very basic questions haven’t been answered yet."
While Trump is yet to make any announcements, the US stock market has already been affected.