The Daily Populous Sunday July 13rd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by Beo1217

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called on the EU to “defend European interests resolutely” after Donald Trump threatened to impose 30% tariffs on nearly all imports from the EU.

It came as the EU moved to de-escalate tensions after the blunt move by Trump on Saturday. The bloc declared a further pause on €21bn of retaliatory tariffs until 1 August, dovetailing with the US president’s new deal deadline.

At the same time, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Indonesian president, Prabowo Subianto, announced a “political agreement” on a free trade deal on Sunday, ending nine years of negotiations.

Indonesia, one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, had recently come to the view that the EU, despite its hostility to regulation, was a more stable partner than the US, said one diplomat.

The EU has stepped up its efforts to forge new agreements with South American and Asian partners after Trump blew up the world’s trading system, with hopes that deals with India, Thailand and others can be concluded by year end.

Macron said the EU should be ready for a trade war and to stand up to the US president, who was only last week expected to approve a 10% tariff agreement in principle with the bloc.

“It is more than ever up to the commission to assert the union’s determination to defend European interests resolutely,” Macron said on social media. “In particular, this implies accelerating the preparation of credible countermeasures, by mobilising all the instruments at its disposal, including anti-coercion, if no agreement is reached by 1 August.”

Other European leaders called for calm, including in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. But reflecting the shock around the bloc over Trump’s threat, the influential Federation of German Industries (BDI) said Trump’s announcement was “a wake-up call for the industry on both sides of the Atlantic”.

Macron’s call for trade war readiness came in contrast to Berlin, which urged a “pragmatic” response.

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he had spoken directly to Trump, underlining a driving role he is playing to shape EU tactics ahead of Trump’s new 1 August deadline.

“I discussed this intensively over the weekend with both Macron and Ursula von der Leyen,” Merz told German broadcaster ARD. “We want to use this time now, the two and half weeks until August 1 to find a solution. I am really committed to this.”

Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, who enjoys good relations with Trump, said in a statement she trusted “a fair agreement” could be reached. “It would make no sense to trigger a trade war between the two sides of the Atlantic,” she said.

The Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, said on social media the EU “must remain united and resolute” in its aim to reach a “mutually beneficial” deal with the US.

Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Harris, said that it was all part of Trump’s playbook which “recognises the need for a deal” and that the hike in tariffs was “his way” of negotiating.

The White House economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said on Sunday that Trump would proceed with threatened tariffs on the EU, Mexico, and other countries if the trade deal offers did not improve. “Well, these tariffs are real if the president doesn’t get a deal that he thinks is good enough,” he told ABC’s This Week programme. “But you know, conversations are ongoing, and we’ll see where the dust settles.”

EU ambassadors were briefed on the latest development at an emergency meeting in Brussels on Sunday. Sources said they were keen to show unity and support for the commission’s plan to continue negotiations. EU trade ministers are to meet on Monday.

Von der Leyen warned on Sunday: “We will continue to prepare for countermeasures, so we are fully prepared,” while describing the Indonesia deal as a “huge milestone” that would help diversify markets. She also said the EU would continue to simplify the single market to “deepen” the opportunities within the bloc for trade, “because this is our safe harbour”.

The threat of a 30% tariff is being seen as a negotiating tactic, but behind the scenes there is fury, with many viewing it as a dangerous transatlantic game at a time of grave global instability.

Trump’s latest salvo is in line with his April “liberation day” claim that the EU was charging unfair duties of 39% on US imports, an analysis widely discredited, with EU officials pointing to an average of about 2.5%.

View image in fullscreen Trump’s ‘liberation day’ tariff chart. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Some MEPs have warned that if they start accepting “illegal” tariffs as the new norm, Trump will just come back for more. “It is matter of showing the EU is not a victim, is not paralysed in itself or scared,” the Italian MEP Brando Benifei, a member of the international trade committee, said last week.

Germany’s Association of the Automotive Industry warned about the prospect of rising costs for carmakers and suppliers and said it was “regrettable that there is a threat of a further escalation of the trade conflict”.

Germany’s car industry is already reeling from the 25% hike in tariffs on exports to the US on top of the pre-existing 2.5%, while its steel industry is having to cope with punitive tariffs of 50%.

It is understood the agreement in principle that was on Trump’s table offered potential tariff relief for any European car manufacturers with plants in the US, which included Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen along with the Swedish brand Volvo.

But last week the Swedish finance minister called the agreement “really bad” while at the same time saying that some economic pain was inevitable.

The EU-US trade is worth €1.4bntn a year but just three countries – Germany, Italy and Ireland, with its large multinational pharma sector – export more to the US than they import.

ciopobbi on July 13rd, 2025 at 12:51 UTC »

Other countries are just going to cut the US out. Trump doesn’t realize how a global market works. He’s created irreversible mistrust in the US as a partner. How can other countries plan on what the US will do if things can flip-flop every four years?

Forward-Weather4845 on July 13rd, 2025 at 12:31 UTC »

No sense of making any trade deals with the US. America is untrustworthy.

Wide_Open_Buttcheeks on July 13rd, 2025 at 12:02 UTC »

Stock market is going to be interesting tomorrow