The EU should have a response ready to US tariffs if the US lifts its pause on tariffs on European goods at the beginning of July. This is what Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) says at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday.
- My temperament is that if the Americans insist, we will of course have to respond in a similar way.
At the same time, she emphasizes that she fundamentally believes that a trade war between allies is wrong.
- In my eyes, it is strange to undermine each other's economy when we agreed yesterday at a NATO meeting that there are dangers all around. We must make our economies so strong that we can both arm ourselves, that we can maintain competitiveness, and that we can ensure that the punitive tariffs work, says Mette Frederiksen.
First and foremost, the EU Commission should continue to try to negotiate. But if that fails, other measures will have to be taken, the prime minister believes.
To a question about whether Denmark is in favor of accepting a basic tariff of ten percent to avoid a trade war, Frederiksen replies that the countries have not yet finished that discussion.
Several countries are critical
Several countries, including Hungary and Germany, have expressed their belief that the EU Commission's attempts to have the trade war with the United States called off are not effective enough.
On April 9, US President Donald Trump paused the tariffs he had imposed on European goods. At the time, he said that the pause would last 90 days. The EU Commission is therefore expected to either push for a trade agreement between the US and the EU or to impose counter-tariffs on goods from the US.
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic is negotiating with the US administration on behalf of the EU.
The German criticism is that the Commission is too detail-oriented in its attempt to create agreements for various goods. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants the Commission to negotiate agreements in place for four or five of Europe's largest industries.
From Hungary's side, the criticism is that the European negotiator is "very weak" compared to his American counterpart.
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