European Union leaders meeting in Brussels on Monday (Feb 3) warned there would be no winners in a trade war with the United States, insisting they would hit back if President Donald Trump imposes tariffs.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the European Union must show its muscle if US President Donald Trump makes good on his threat to target the bloc with a volley of tariffs.
“If we are attacked in terms of trade, Europe – as a true power – will have to stand up for itself,” Macron said.
The leaders of the EU’s 27 nations were huddling in the Belgian capital with Britain’s prime minister and the head of Nato to discuss efforts to boost Europe’s defences faced with an aggressive Russia – as Trump’s demands that American allies spend much more.
But the discussions were overshadowed by the US leader’s decision to slap tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China – with Trump threatening to target EU next.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said everything must be done to avoid a “totally unnecessary and stupid” trade war.
European Union leaders are gathering in Brussels on Monday to discuss boosting Europe’s military funding in the face of multiple threats, including Russia’s war on Ukraine – which is about to enter its third year.
Organised by European Council President Antonio Costa, the exceptional defence retreat will involve British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
The summit comes two weeks after US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House with promises of a “quick end” to the Ukraine war.
But European leaders fear he will cut off crucial aid to Kyiv and force a ceasefire that favours Moscow.
“Europe needs to assume greater responsibility for its own defence,” Costa told leaders in his invitation to the meeting.
Ahead of Monday’s meeting, 19 of the 27 European Union members, including France and Germany, signed a letter urging the European Investment Bank (EIB) to loosen its rules on what it can fund and increase the amount of money available.
The EIB is the world’s biggest multilateral public lender and has ploughed in billions of euros to help Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022.
Trump has not hidden his enmity for the EU, accusing it of treating the United States “very, very unfairly” on trade.
After slapping levies on his North American neighbours and China, Trump doubled down on Sunday by saying he “definitely” planned to target the EU in future.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said a trade dispute would be “bad for the US, bad for Europe”, with transatlantic “cooperation” preferable for both sides.
“We can also react,” he added, veering from Germany’s traditionally cautious approach to transatlantic trade relations.
“We need America, and America needs us as well,” echoed the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, adding there were “no winners in trade wars”.
On Sunday, the European Commission said it would retaliate “firmly” if Trump hit it and decried his sweeping measures against Canada, Mexico and China.
“Tariffs create unnecessary economic disruption and drive inflation. They are hurtful to all sides,” a commission spokesman said.
Up until then Brussels had said it hoped to avoid a trade conflict with Trump through negotiation.
Later European Council chief Antonio Costa held a night phone call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Both leaders underscored the importance of the EU-Canada bilateral relationship and confirmed their determination to continue to working together,” an EU official said.
Since Trump was re-elected in November, Brussels has been working to diversify its trading partnerships, announcing in recent weeks both a strengthened trade deal with Mexico and the resumption of talks on a free trade deal with Malaysia.
Back in 2018, during his first term, Trump imposed tariffs on European steel and aluminium exports – leading the EU to respond with its own higher duties.
UK’s Starmer in Brussels to urge unity against Russia
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer travels to Brussels on Monday to call on Europe to shoulder more of the burden to keep the region safe from President Vladimir Putin’s Russia and redouble efforts to crush his “war machine”.
Starmer, in Brussels to further his post-Brexit reset with the European Union, will meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and then dine with leaders from the 27 member states, the first time a British leader has done so since Britain quit the bloc.
He will urge leaders to up the pressure on Putin, saying U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion he would add new tariffs to his sanctions threat against Moscow if there was no deal to end its war in Ukraine had rattled the Russian leader.
“We need to see all allies stepping up – particularly in Europe,” Starmer will say, according to remarks provided by his Downing Street office.
“I’m here to work with our European partners on keeping up the pressure, targeting the energy revenues and the companies supplying his missile factories to crush Putin’s war machine.”
Since winning a landslide election in July, Starmer has worked to improve ties with the EU after years of rancorous Brexit talks, with his government hoping to agree to scrap some of red tape hampering trade to try to boost economic growth.
But on Sunday, interior minister Yvette Cooper cast doubt over one particular lever the British government could have by saying a deal for an EU-UK youth mobility scheme was “not the right starting point for us”.
“We’ve been clear that we need net migration to come down,” she told Sky News. “So that’s why this is not an approach that we are looking for.”
Main Photo: From left to right: António COSTA (President of the European Council), Robert ABELA (Prime Minister, Malta)
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