Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said the EU was strong enough to react to any US trade levies but “the goal should be that things result in cooperation”. The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said there would be “no winners in a trade war”.
Europe and the US needed each other, she said, while the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said a trade war was “a complete mistake” and everything possible must be done to stop allies fighting “in the face of a Russian threat or Chinese expansion”.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said Copenhagen would generally “never support fighting allies”, but “[if the Trump administration imposed] tough tariffs on Europe, we need a collective and robust response”.
Trump imposed swingeing tariffs on goods imported from Canada, Mexico and China on Saturday, sparking retaliation from all three countries. He said on Sunday night that new tariffs on the EU would “definitely happen”.