Polish premier calls for ‘firm and united’ EU response to Trump’s tariff threats
WARSAW
The EU must offer a “firm and united” response to US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said during an informal summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Monday.
Trump hinted Monday that the EU could be next to face tariffs after he put 25% levies on goods from Mexico and Canada and an extra 10% tax on imports from China. He said that tariffs on the EU could happen “pretty soon.”
Tusk, whose country holds the EU’s rotating six-month presidency, also called on the EU to maintain the “best possible relations with the United States.”
“We must be able to take care of our relations with the US, but we must also have a sense of our own dignity and strength,” he said, adding: “Europe must show a lot of common sense, calmness, responsibility. We must without doubt be united.”
Tusk said the EU should “do everything possible to avoid a spat between allies,” especially given the threats posed by Russia and China, “but we must also say loudly and clearly that starting some kind of tariff or trade wars is a complete mistake,” he added.
He also said he would try to “convince all European leaders” against “limiting or eliminating the spending of European money on American weapons.”
This is not about “sucking up to someone in Washington,” he said, but about “finally taking security seriously as our top priority. American weapons and the best possible relations with the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Norway – when it comes to defense – must be at the center of our attention,” he added.
Poland raised its defense budget to the highest relative level in NATO, at over 4.12% of GDP last year and 4.7% this year.
In 2022, the US exported $592 billion worth of goods and services to the EU and imported $723.3 billion from the EU, according to data from the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
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