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US President Donald Trump goes to the South White House lawn after arriving in the Maritime Infantry in Washington, Colombia District, Sunday, July 13, 2025.
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After US President Donald Trump said the European Union went as part of 30% tariff to the goods imported from the block starting on August 1.
European leaders were fast respondSaying they will still work to conclude an agreement with the US until early August. EU too further detained opposition Which were supposed to come into force this week and warned that the preparation for the additional steps that had been paid.
Monday EU Commissioner Moros Sefkovich detach Reporters that the letter was obtained from “regret and disappointment … especially given the advanced stage of our constant negotiations.”
SEFCOVIC emphasized that the EU was still focused on finding a negotiation decision, but was preparing for all possible results – which could include counteraction measures. He also said he would later talk to his American colleagues.
“I do not imagine how to leave without real effort,” said the trade commissioner.
Less than a month before Trump’s new term, the European Union will have to act quickly to prevent tariffs or risk further escalation.
EU under pressure
While EU leaders remain determined to make a deal, economists and analysts have warned that the threat of a 30% tariff rate added fresh pressure on the 27-member block.
“This is a very bad news for Europe,” said Alicia Garri-Herrero, Bruegel Senior Officer and the Asia-Pacific Economist in Natixis on Monday.
“Trump is pushing the commission to come up with a better business,” she added.
Karsten B. Brzeska, Head of World Macro in Ing, and Inga Fahner, senior economist, who focuses on world trade, impressed a similar tone.
“Trump’s letter to the EU is not a love letter, but not a letter of hatred. It is a letter to increase pressure in the current negotiations,” they said in the note on Sunday.
However, the EU still has options, said economists, believing that one approach may be in order for the EU to increase its purchase of products in the US, starting from soy to military equipment.
Brussels can also reduce existing tariffs and other trading obstacles on items such as US cars, or make export bans on products that are important to the United States, such as European pharmaceuticals, Brzeski and Fechner.
“The fourth and the final option will be retaliation either with increasing tariffs for US goods or a nuclear option in trade: digital services tariffs, but also tougher rules of US technology firms,” said economists, however, was probably causing a full trade war.
Compromise forward?
Despite extra pressure on the EU, it remains the expectation that the block and Washington DC will order the agreement in the coming weeks.
“I think both sides will compromise. This is in the interests of both the US and the European Union,” said Joger Kramer, Chief Economist Commerzbank.
“In the end, I expect that for the European Union in the USA to the Square of 15%,” he said on Monday, “Europe’s early edition of” CNBC “.
Notably, this rate would be higher than 10%that was previously estimated to many and corresponds to the agreement agreed by the UK and the US
Economist Berenberg Solomon Fedler, meanwhile, proved to be more optimistic, saying that the bank still expects 10% of duties, even if “the risks are now highly skewed to higher rates.”
One of the reasons for optimism is that Trump has repeatedly held extraordinary positions, and then later compromised, Fidler claimed. “The fact that Trump threatened only a new rate 30% on August 1, instead of realizing it faster, suggests that he still wants to agree,” he said.
Fidler can also shy away from further tariffs when businesses start to transmit higher import costs. The domestic political background may also change, which can make the US president to try to keep public attention, he added.
On the lapel, the risk factors for raising the levies include unlikely that the US trade deficit – which Trump often uses as an argument for tariffs – will disappear, and, according to Fedler, the US administration from tariff income.
“Always a distant hope for a good result of the negotiations – bilateral removal of all tariffs and some other trade barriers between the EU and the US – has still disappeared in terms,” he said.
