Donald Trump rejects EU’s proposals for ‘zero for zero’ tariffs deal on cars and industrial goods – Europe live
Morning opening: Not good enough
Jakub Krupa
US president Donald Trump openly rejected the EU’s proposals for a “zero for zero” tariffs deal on cars and industrial goods, telling reporters in the Oval Office it was not good enough.
His comments are not entirely surprising as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič already indicated there were no signs that the offer, made originally in February, would be taken up.
But Trump’s very direct rejection overnight makes another dent in the EU’s hopes of getting a negotiated solution, without having to escalate the trade war any further.
Speaking alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump repeated his greatest hits on the EU which he says “has been very tough over the years” and “was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade” through “a little bit of a monopoly situation to create a unified force against the United States.”
“We have a deficit with the European Union of $350bn and it’s going to disappear fast. And one of the reasons and one of the ways that that can disappear easily and quickly is they’re going to have to buy our energy from us because they need it. They’re going to have to buy it from us. … We can knock off $350bn in one week,” he said.
(The EU questions the figure as completely incorrect, giving me flashbacks of another dispute over 350, a clearly unfortunate number, but millions that was at the centre of the Brexit campaign in the UK.)
Trump also raged against non-monetary tariffs, picking up on the unusually specific question of safety standards in cars, as he said the EU “make it so difficult, the standards and the tests” as “they drop a bowling ball on the top of your car from 20 feet up in the air and if there’s a little dent, they say no, I’m sorry, your car doesn’t qualify.”
“When the same car from Germany or anything would dent likewise; unless you can have an army tank, it’s going to dent. So, they come up with rules and regulations that are just designed for one reason, that you can’t sell your product in those countries. And we’re not going to let that happen.”
Meanwhile in Brussels, officials will be finalising the first tranche of retaliatory measures against US tariffs on steel and aluminium, which are due to be formally voted on tomorrow.
Let’s see what the day brings.
It’s Tuesday, 8 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
Key events
Trump risking ‘a Liz Truss moment’, German press says
To give you an idea on how some in Europe see Donald Trump’s trade policies, the German business daily Handelsblatt says today, quoting an interview with a senior German economist Ulrike Malmendier, that the US president could be risking a “Liz Truss moment.”
The former British prime minister remains very sensitive about any suggestions that she crashed the economy, but it was the fallout from her budget in 2022 that sparked a political crisis and eventually led to her leaving the post after just 49 days.
But the German paper adds that the problem with the analogy is that the Republican Party does not seem to have a notoriously rebellious committee of backbench lawmakers prepared to force its leader to make concessions or to resign.
“If Trump was to actually correct his tariff policy, it could only be due to his own insight – or out of fear of an economic collapse in the US,” it says.
For what it’s worth, Truss is a fervent supporter of Trump.
Morning opening: Not good enough
Jakub Krupa
US president Donald Trump openly rejected the EU’s proposals for a “zero for zero” tariffs deal on cars and industrial goods, telling reporters in the Oval Office it was not good enough.
His comments are not entirely surprising as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič already indicated there were no signs that the offer, made originally in February, would be taken up.
But Trump’s very direct rejection overnight makes another dent in the EU’s hopes of getting a negotiated solution, without having to escalate the trade war any further.
Speaking alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump repeated his greatest hits on the EU which he says “has been very tough over the years” and “was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade” through “a little bit of a monopoly situation to create a unified force against the United States.”
“We have a deficit with the European Union of $350bn and it’s going to disappear fast. And one of the reasons and one of the ways that that can disappear easily and quickly is they’re going to have to buy our energy from us because they need it. They’re going to have to buy it from us. … We can knock off $350bn in one week,” he said.
(The EU questions the figure as completely incorrect, giving me flashbacks of another dispute over 350, a clearly unfortunate number, but millions that was at the centre of the Brexit campaign in the UK.)
Trump also raged against non-monetary tariffs, picking up on the unusually specific question of safety standards in cars, as he said the EU “make it so difficult, the standards and the tests” as “they drop a bowling ball on the top of your car from 20 feet up in the air and if there’s a little dent, they say no, I’m sorry, your car doesn’t qualify.”
“When the same car from Germany or anything would dent likewise; unless you can have an army tank, it’s going to dent. So, they come up with rules and regulations that are just designed for one reason, that you can’t sell your product in those countries. And we’re not going to let that happen.”
Meanwhile in Brussels, officials will be finalising the first tranche of retaliatory measures against US tariffs on steel and aluminium, which are due to be formally voted on tomorrow.
Let’s see what the day brings.
It’s Tuesday, 8 April 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
