The EU countries’ trade ministers come together this Monday on consultations on the customs conflict with the United States. The meeting in Luxembourg should be about the question of which strategy US President Donald Trump could be used to withdraw from the recently imposed special tariffs. At the same time, it is planned to advance the preparations for counter -tariffs and other possible retaliation measures. They should be imposed if attempts at negotiations fail.
For Germany, the executive Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is expected to meet. Like many other European politicians, he fears that Trump’s new tariffs worldwide could cause serious economic problems.
Trump wants to correct alleged trade weights with tariffs and move production to the USA. At the same time, customs revenues should serve to at least partially counter its expensive election promise of large tax cuts.
Trade relationships with China are also an issue
In addition to the trade relationships of the EU to the United States, the people at China should also play a role at the meeting. For this purpose, trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic will report on his recent talks in Beijing. The EU has been trying to persuade China to hire unfair trade and subsidy practices for years – but so far without great success. The value of goods imports from China exceeded the value of exports to China last year by 304.5 billion euros.
In contrast, the EU posted a significant surplus of 198.2 billion euros in goods trading with the USA. In 2024, for example, 531.6 billion euros were carried out to the United States and only goods worth 333.4 billion euros were imported from the USA. In the service sector, however, the EU has a trade deficit with the United States.