Melike Pala
14 July 2025•Update: 15 July 2025
BRUSSELS
The European Union warned Monday that the United States’ planned 30% tariff on EU goods would effectively rule out trade and vowed to use every minute before the Aug. 1 deadline to reach a negotiated solution.
Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen both underlined the bloc's preference for dialogue but stressed unity.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington will impose 30% tariffs on the EU and Mexico starting on Aug. 1, putting US-EU trade talks at risk, as the bloc had aimed to finalize a comprehensive trade deal this month.
"The EU, as you know very well, never walks away without genuine effort," Sefcovic said.
"Especially considering the hard work invested, how close we find ourselves to making a deal, and the clear benefits of the negotiated solution. But as I have said before, it takes two hands to clap."
He said that talks with US partners at high levels are ongoing, including President Donald Trump and White House officials, adding: "We want to use every day, every possibility, and every minute until the first of August to find negotiated solution."
Sefcovic said the proposed 30% tariff level is "absolute prohibitive to any trade,” emphasizing that the EU's aim is to protect jobs, businesses, and the European economy.
"I was very open with my US counterparts, it has to be the agreement which would have a support of our member states of the European Parliament and it has to be the agreement which would be acceptable to us," he added.
He also said the commission proposed that member states begin discussing a second package of rebalancing measures targeting around €72 billion ($84.2 billion) in US goods in response to the new tariffs.
Rasmussen said EU member states find the 30% tariff announcement "absolutely unacceptable and unjustified," adding that member states are united in their opposition to the new US tariffs and stressed the bloc's readiness to act if negotiations fail.
"We do not want a trade war with the US. We want to avoid it, and we had," he said. "But we also want to send a clear signal that it must be a fair deal for everybody, and if that's not possible to reach, then we will leave out no options."
