The Daily Populous Friday April 11st, 2025 evening edition
Authored by politico.eu and submitted by doopityWoop22

Trump had hit the 27-nation bloc with a 20 percent duty on all goods. Under pressure as financial markets melted down, he halved the levy to 10 percent — the baseline he has set in his bid to bring investment and industrial jobs lost to globalization back home.

So it happened that, on Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suspended EU tariffs on €20.9 billion in U.S. exports before they even took effect. It was the retaliation that never happened. At least not yet.

“We want to give negotiations a chance,” von der Leyen said in a social media post.

That was followed by a kicker: “If negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in. Preparatory work on further countermeasures continues. As I have said before, all options remain on the table.”

By design as much as by strategy, the bloc’s reaction to Trump is moving slowly, anchored in legal justification and carefully weighted through internal consensus — with businesses, but most importantly, with the bloc’s member countries.

That’s because while trade policy may be the Commission’s turf, Brussels still needs political cover.

cuttino_mowgli on April 11st, 2025 at 08:06 UTC »

> As a second EU diplomat put it: “Let's talk, and seriously this time, otherwise we still retaliate.”

EU doesn't want a kneejerk reaction but a cool headed decision since they're representing pretty much all of Europe.

Intelligent_Water_79 on April 11st, 2025 at 07:56 UTC »

why shoot yourself in the foot when the other guys bullet just ricocheted and hit him in the face

Cartina on April 11st, 2025 at 07:47 UTC »

Yeah, EU tariffs might take more time to apply, but they are also probably more durable and wont be removed the day after