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The EU has a “strong plan to retaliate” against US tariffs expected on Wednesday, the president of the European Commission has said.
Ursula von der Leyen told the European parliament on Tuesday that the bloc was prepared to hit services exports including those from Big Tech companies if US President Donald Trump imposed “reciprocal tariffs” on all imports into the US.
Brussels would negotiate “from a position of strength”, she said. “Europe holds a lot of cards. From trade to technology to the size of our market. But this strength is also built on our readiness to take firm countermeasures. All instruments are on the table.”
The EU has the ability to hit services exports, where the US has a surplus. That could include suspending some intellectual property rights and excluding companies from public procurement contracts under its enforcement regulation.
A further escalation would be to use the “anti-coercion” instrument for the first time. This allows even tougher action on intellectual property and public procurement. The bloc could reduce access by US financial services companies to its market.
Such measures require a weighted majority of member states to agree.
Brussels has so far delayed extra duties on up to €26bn of US goods after Washington imposed steel and aluminium tariffs, because some countries including France feared an even bigger counter-attack from the US.
The EU has yet to announce any response to Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on cars. Von der Leyen warned that the US might move next on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and timber.
She said the EU still wanted to negotiate first because tariffs would fuel inflation, cost US jobs and “create a bureaucratic monster of new customs procedures”.
Officials said they hoped the planned US announcement on Wednesday was simply the prelude to a round of talks.
However, the US has insisted on discussing not just tariff levels but tax rates and EU health standards, which it believes unfairly block its farm produce.
Washington also says EU member states’ VAT systems are unfair to its companies. It also wants countries that apply digital taxes to technology companies to scrap them, and for Brussels to loosen digital regulation on the grounds that it punishes US companies, and stifles innovation and free speech.
The Financial Times reported last week that the commission would soon levy fines on Apple and Meta for breaching its Digital Markets Act.
Von der Leyen offered to work with the US on pressuring China to change its export-led economic model, without naming the country directly.
There were “severe issues in the world of trade”, she said. “Overcapacities, imbalances, unfair subsidies, denial of market access, intellectual property theft. I hear Americans, when they say some others have taken advantage of the rules. I agree. We also suffer from it. So let us work on it.”
