"Europe is always ready for a good deal," Ursula von der Leyen says as trade tensions with the United States reach all-time high.
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The European Commission has offered the United States a deal to remove tariffs on all industrial goods as part of the trade negotiations, Ursula von der Leyen has said while stressing her intention to retaliate against Donald Trump's policies should talks fail.
Trump has announced a 20% across-the-board tariff on imports from the European Union, set to take effect on 9 April. Steel, aluminum and cars are subject to a separate 25% rate. In total, over €380 billion in EU-made products will be affected.
Pharmaceuticals, copper, lumber, semiconductors and energy have been exempted.
"We stand ready to negotiate with the US. Indeed, we have offered zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods as we have successfully done with many other trading partners," the Commission president said on Monday afternoon.
"Because Europe is always ready for a good deal. So we keep it on the table. But we are also prepared to respond through countermeasures and defend our interests."
The "zero-for-zero" deal was offered in the past "repeatedly" for the automotive sector, von der Leyen said, "but there was no adequate reaction" from Washington.
The Commission expanded the pitch to all industrial goods as talks intensified, a spokesperson said. It was put forward before Trump's announcement on 2 April.
"We prefer to have a negotiated solution," von der Leyen said, warning her executive will use "all instruments" available to hit back "if necessary," including an anti-coercion instrument that was introduced in 2023 but which has never been triggered.
Von der Leyen described Trump's sweeping tariffs as a "major turning point for the United States" that would have "immense costs" for American consumers and businesses alike and deliver a "massive" blow to the global economy.
While Washington has described the tariffs as "reciprocal", Brussels has dismissed its logic as "neither credible nor justified".
Besides the immediate impact on EU-US trade flows, which puts billions at risk of being wiped off, the Commission is also concerned about the potential ramifications that Trump's decision will have on international commerce – in particular on Asia.
Asian countries have been hit with higher rates than the bloc: 24% for Malaysia, 26% for India, 32% for Indonesia, 36% for Thailand, 46% for Vietnam, 48% for Laos and 49% for Cambodia, among others. China was slapped with a 34% "reciprocal" tariff on top of a previous 20% rate, for a whopping 54% in total. (Beijing has already hit back.)
The levels are so prohibitive that Brussels fears Asian countries, whose economies depend on exports, will be locked out of the American market and reroute their products to Europe as an alternative. China is a particular cause of concern, as it is already under intense scrutiny for flooding the West with low-cost, heavily subsidised goods.
During her intervention on Monday, von der Leyen announced the creation of a new "task force" to closely monitor the changes in global commerce.
"We will also protect ourselves against indirect effects through trade diversion. For this purpose, we will set up an 'Import Surveillance Task Force'," she said. "We look at what are the historical imports that we have and had and (whether) there is any specific surge all of a sudden of a certain product or in a certain sector that we have to act on."