By Olesya Dmitracova, CNN
London (CNN) — Europe has “a strong plan” for striking back at the United States in response to Donald Trump’s tariff hikes “if necessary,” a top official said Tuesday on the eve of a long-anticipated announcement of massive import levies by the US president.
For weeks, Trump has promoted April 2 as “Liberation Day” in America, when a number of hefty tariffs will be unveiled to implement his administration’s radical economic agenda. The United States has already announced a sharp increase in tariffs on all imports of steel, aluminum and cars.
“Europe has not started this confrontation,” Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Union’s executive, said in a speech. “We do not necessarily want to retaliate but, if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it.”
On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would reveal his tariff plan in a press conference Wednesday. She did not provide any details about what he would announce but suggested, as Trump has said repeatedly, that the president could unveil reciprocal tariffs, matching other countries’ tariffs dollar for dollar.
In her speech, von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said Europe was “open to negotiations.”
“We will approach these negotiations from a position of strength. Europe holds a lot of cards, from trade to technology to the size of our market,” she continued. “But this strength is also built on our readiness to take firm countermeasures if necessary. All instruments are on the table.”
Von der Leyen did not provide further details of how the EU might retaliate but last month the bloc already walked the talk: It responded to Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs by unveiling countermeasures on up to €26 billion ($28 billion) worth of American goods exports, including tariffs on boats, bourbon and motorbikes.
The European Commission is also a powerful regulator that has not hesitated to hit big US tech companies with heavy fines and other bills in the past – a fact not lost on Trump, who in February released an executive action threatening to take aim at countries that levy “unfair fines and penalties” against American innovators. The proclamation labeled such regulation “overseas extortion” and threatened higher tariffs in retribution.
The EU has been a big buyer of US exports – last year, it was the largest single market for US goods exports, ahead of America’s neighbors Canada and Mexico, based on figures from the United States Census Bureau.
Both Europe and the US have a lot at stake in the escalating trade dispute. In 2024, America was the biggest buyer of European goods, with imports ranging from pharmaceutical products and cars to alcoholic drinks and telecommunications equipment, according to official EU data. The EU, meanwhile, was America’s biggest source of goods imports last year, the US figures showed.
In February, von der Leyen emphasized the importance of the US-EU trading relationship. “The whole trade volume between us is $1.5 trillion,” she said in a speech, also noting that 1 million American jobs depended directly on trade with Europe.
The-CNN-Wire
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