Germany Warns Trump Of EU Retaliation If A Fair Tariff Deal Is Not Struck

As President Donald Trump began issuing letters slapping tariffs on over a dozen countries, Germany warned that the European Union is ready to retaliate against the U.S. in case a fair deal is not reached.

Germany’s finance minister Lars Klingbeil on Tuesday warned that the European Union is ready to retaliate if needed in case it fails to reach an agreement with President Trump on tariffs.

"If we don't reach a fair trade deal with the U.S., the EU is ready to take counter measures," Klingbeil said on Tuesday, according to a Reuters report.

However, the report added that the EU is close to striking a deal with the U.S.

Klingbeil’s statement comes after President Trump sent out letters to over a dozen countries on Monday, slapping blanket tariffs on all imports from those countries into the U.S. starting August 1.

This also comes after the EU and U.S. have been negotiating a trade deal for several weeks now.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had previously extended an olive branch to the U.S., offering zero-for-zero tariffs on industrial goods.

Von der Leyen stated in April that the EU is ready for negotiations on tariffs, and the Commission’s spokesperson expressed a similar sentiment during a press conference on Monday.

They added that the EU doesn’t want to go down the tariff route, and instead of increasing them, would like to see them decrease and even eliminate them wherever possible.

“That remains the case, that remains our priority. We will be making that case strongly both at technical level and at political level this week,”  the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities remained on the edge on Tuesday as Wall Street digests President Trump's slapping 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea.

At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was nearly flat, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) gained 0.08%. Stocktwits data shows retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF has been in the ‘neutral’ territory over the past week.

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