There are European fears that the EU could be flooded with displaced Chinese goods priced out of the US market if the tariffs are imposed on Beijing.
“We don’t want to have a trade war. But we can’t be bullied,” an EU diplomat told The Telegraph at the European Political Community summit in Budapest, Hungary.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said: “If there are challenges ahead of us, no member state on its own is able to manage them, but standing together as 27, as a European Union, gives us a lot of power.”
‘We must defend Europeans’
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, told his fellow leaders: “He is American. He will defend American interests.
“We have to be prepared to defend the interest of Europeans. That is our question. That has to be our priority.”
Simon Harris, Ireland’s Taoiseach, told reporters in Budapest: “The risk of a transatlantic trade shock has now increased. I think that is just a fact.”
He added: “President Trump is a businessman. He is somewhat transactional. I think he will understand that the relationship in terms of trade is a two-way relationship and the relationship in terms of jobs is a two-way relationship.”
The United States was the largest market for EU exports of goods, at 19.7 per cent, in 2023. The US is the EU’s second-largest trading partner for imports.
Putting goods and services together, EU-US trade was worth $1.3 trillion (£1 trillion) in 2022. Mr Trump believes the EU runs a huge trade surplus with the US, which it uses to pay for its social policies while freeloading on defence by relying on Washington for its security.