Fallen in the trap (II)
European Commission President von der Leyen spurns countermeasures against Trump’s latest tariff threats – having already deliberately relinquished leverage in the trade dispute.
WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (own report) – The EU is still not responding with countermeasures to the latest tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Indeed, Brussels is acting to block demands for an effective counter-offensive coming from France, the European Parliament and other quarters. In response to Trump’s latest announcement that he would impose tariffs of 30 per cent on all imports from the EU from 1 August, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that Brussels would be “extending the suspension of our countermeasures until early August”. Von der Leyen had already ensured that a package of retaliatory tariffs on imports from the US worth some 21 billion US dollars would not be implemented. In adopting this passive stance she took into account the demands of the German government. Berlin wants to avoid an escalation of the conflict at all costs in order not to jeopardise German industry’s business relations with the US. Germany’s trade with the US far exceeds its trade any other country. Von der Leyen has even stepped back deliberately from planning other ways of giving the EU leverage, not least the introduction of EU digital taxes and expanding trade relations with China. Trump is now ruthlessly exploiting the resulting dependence.
New tariff threats
At the end of last week, US President Donald Trump renewed his tariff threats against the EU, raising the rates. Having initially imposed 20 per cent on all imports from the EU at the beginning of April, he then announced a temporary suspension and a new minimum tariff of 10 per cent. Now, he wants to levy 30 per cent tariffs from 1 August. This affects imports of almost all goods, with the exception of cars and automotive parts as well as steel and aluminium. Cars are already subject to a 27.5 percent tariff, composed of the original 2.5 percent plus a 25 percent additional tariffs imposed by Trump. Steel and aluminium have been subject to a massive 50 percent tariff imposed by Trump for some time.[1] Both will remain in place. Customs duties on US imports from Mexico – currently 25 percent on cars and automotive parts, and 30 percent on all other goods from 1 August – are also impacting German companies. This is because numerous German companies, especially in the automotive industry, take advantage of the low wages in Mexico to supply the US market from there. This practice, which is also very widespread among US manufacturers, is jeopardised in the long term by Trump’s tariffs on imports from Mexico.[2]
No resistance
As Commission President Ursula von der Leyen explained last Sunday, the EU will not respond to the tariff attack with countermeasures. The bloc will continue its current course. Back in April, the EU member states had already agreed to impose retaliatory tariffs on imports from the United States worth at least 21 billion euros. The Commission then subsequently decided to delay the measure, postponing the move until 15 July. In fact, EU exports to the US are now subject to a 10 per cent tariff, while US companies can continue to supply the EU under the traditional arrangement and do not have to expect any counter-tariffs from the EU. In response to Trump’s aggressive announcement that he would be imposing tariffs of 30 per cent on imports from the EU from 1 August, von der Leyen merely stated that this would “disrupt important transatlantic supply chains and harm companies, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic”.[3] The EU Commission still hoped, it claimed, for a fruitful negotiated solution to the tariff dispute with the US. On Sunday, von der Leyen reaffirmed that, “We will therefore extend the suspension of our countermeasures until the beginning of August.”[4]
‘Pragmatic negotiations’
In adopting this stance, von der Leyen aligns with the demands of the German government and disregards the wishes of other EU states. On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “very strong disapproval” of the new 30 percent tariffs and called for a “resolute defence of European interests”.[5] This would require “credible countermeasures” employing “all available instruments”. Paris, like Madrid, had already been pushing hard for the EU to take active steps in the fight against punitive US tariffs. Even German members of the European Parliament are now becoming restless. Daniel Caspary, who chairs the CDU/CSU group in the European Parliament, is reported as saying on Saturday that he “would like” the EU Commission to “slowly begin to take appropriate countermeasures.” And Bernd Lange (SPD), chair of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, said that “the first list of compensatory measures ... must finally be activated.”[6] The German government, on the other hand, continues to act as a brake. Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche has demanded that Europe “negotiates a pragmatic solution with the US”.[7] Once again, this is the approach von der Leyen supports.
A victory for Trump
Over recent weeks and months, the President of the European Commission has made a series of decisions that deprive Brussels of significant opportunities to put pressure on the US. According to a report by the news portal Politico, von der Leyen has abandoned plans to introduce an EU digital tax and make US internet giants such as Apple and Google pay up.[8] The idea of a digital tax was not only to extract at least part of the excessive profits made by tech companies but also to help reduce the mountain of debt incurred by borrowing to mitigate the consequences of the Covid pandemic. Politico comments that von der Leyen’s tacit withdrawal of the plan is a “move that hands victory to Donald Trump”. Instead of pursuing the widely anticipated digital levy, Brussels plans to impose new taxes on electronic waste and tobacco and to extract contributions from companies with a turnover of more than 50 million euros. This retreat is, at least according to Politico’s information, to be set out in the future EU budget, plans for which are to be presented by von der Leyen on Wednesday.
Summit sabotage
What is more, von der Leyen has torpedoed rapprochement with China that was initiated in April. The move was intended to compensate for some of the losses in US business by expanding trade with the People’s Republic. On the side-lines of the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, in mid-June, she made insulting remarks about Beijing, accusing the Chinese government – not Donald Trump – of perpetuating “a pattern of dominance, dependency and blackmail”. At the same time, she suggested that Trump lift tariffs on imports from the EU and join forces with Brussels to take action against China (german-foreign-policy.com reported [9]). Head of EU Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas took a similar approach during a visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Brussels. Von der Leyen deliberately hardened her accusations in a speech to the European Parliament on Tuesday last week. Beijing has now responded. The EU-China summit, originally scheduled for two days (24/25 July), will reportedly be shortened to one day. The dialogue on expanding European-Chinese trade, which is usually held before the summit, will not even take place. And the plans for von der Leyen accompanied by European Council President António Costa to be received by President Xi Jinping will probably be scrapped. Calls are meanwhile growing louder in Brussels for the summit to be cancelled altogether.[10]
Dependent on US business
In contrast to the initiatives by France and other countries for an aggressive defence of the EU’s own interests, von der Leyen has committed Europe, effectively with no alternative, to continued close cooperation with the US. She is deliberately relinquishing potential leverage offered by a digital levy or closer trade cooperation with China. The background to Berlin’s insistence that the European Commission and its President do everything to avoid escalating the conflict is that the US has become by far the most important investment location for German industry and also its largest sales market. The German government believes that a strong stance will jeopardise profits (german-foreign-policy.com reported [11]). And Trump is exploiting this reading ruthlessly.
More on this topic: Fallen in the trap.
[1] Roland Lindner: Trump droht EU mit Zöllen von 30 Prozent. faz.net 12.07.2025.
[2] Gavin Bade, Kim Mackrael, Santiago Pérez: Trump Threatens 30% Tariffs on EU, Mexico. wsj.com 12.07.2025.
[3] Jakob Hanke Vela, Moritz Koch, Robert Laubach, Annett Meiritz, Lydia Wolter: Trump kündigt 30 Prozent Zölle auf EU-Produkte ab 1. August an. handelsblatt.com 12.07.2025.
[4] EU verschiebt vorbereitete Gegenzölle auf Anfang August. tagesschau.de 13.07.2025.
[5] Droits de douane : Macron exprime une « très vive désapprobation », Berlin appelle à l’UE à négocier de « manière pragmatique ». lesechos.fr 12.07.2025.
[6], [7] Jakob Hanke Vela, Moritz Koch, Robert Laubach, Annett Meiritz, Lydia Wolter: Trump kündigt 30 Prozent Zölle auf EU-Produkte ab 1. August an. handelsblatt.com 12.07.2025.
[8] Gregorio Sorgi: Victory for Trump as EU backs down on digital taxes in next budget. politico.eu 11.07.2025.
[9] See: „Maximal konfrontativ”.
[10] Antonia Zimmermann, Camille Gijs: The EU-China summit will lack deliverables. Xi may not attend. So why even go? politico.eu 09.07.2025.
[11] See also: Fallen in the trap.
