- Europe reluctance to take hard line on China looms as irritant
- Tariff hikes, countermeasures on Europe digital taxes in play
Donald Trump is targeting the European Union for a potential slew of punitive trade measures designed to address long-standing grievances should he retake office, according to people familiar with his team’s nascent economic-platform discussions.
The two sides are still at odds over tariff increases Trump imposed in his first term as president on steel and aluminum, which were partly suspended in 2021 after President Joe Biden took office. If Trump wins in November, the EU undoubtedly will be one of his chief targets on trade, according to conversations with several Trump advisers.
A likely starting point in a second Trump administration would be the EU’s inclusion in a broad minimum 10% tariff, which would also be applied to China, his allies said. He might also assemble counter-measures against European digital services taxes that implicitly go after US technology champions, using Section 301 of the US trade law, the allies added.