U.S. allies across Europe voiced alarm and frustration after President Donald Trump said Saturday that he was hiking his newly announced global tariff to 15%, less than a day after announcing a 10% worldwide duty.
On Friday, Trump announced the blanket 10% import tax for all foreign trading partners after most of his sweeping country-by-country tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court.
One day later, he said in a Truth Social post that he would be immediately “raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level.”
The United States’ European allies, now more than familiar with Trump’s rapidly shifting tariff threats after more than a year of diplomacy, criticized the new measures and called for unity across the continent.
In Saturday remarks made before Trump announced the 15% rate, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned of the “poison” of more uncertainty around tariffs.
“I will go to Washington with a coordinated European position,” he told reporters on Saturday, according to Reuters. “The biggest poison for the economies of Europe and the U.S. is this constant uncertainty about tariffs. And this uncertainty must end,” Merz added.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his government would “will look exactly at the consequences, what can be done, and we will adapt.”
He also made the comments before Trump’s new tariff rate was announced, adding that the “fairest possible rules involve reciprocity, not suffering unilateral decisions.”
“If this helps calm things down, then fine. And I think we should aim for an approach of easing tensions internationally, and continue modernizing our economy,” added Macron.
France’s trade minister, Nicolas Forissier, told the Financial Times on Saturday that Europe has the tools to hit back at the U.S. for its latest round of tariffs and rallied European Union members to adopt “a united approach.”
Meanwhile, the U.K. government said Friday that it expects Britain’s “privileged trading position with the U.S.” to continue. A statement said it was a “matter for the U.S. to determine” whether past agreements still stand, but officials vowed to “support U.K. businesses as further details are announced.”
Bernd Lange, the chair of the Committee on International Trade in the E.U. Parliament, told the BBC that he will press for a pause on negotiations over an E.U.-U.S. trade deal.
Uncertainty is a familiar position for European leaders, who have spent much of Trump’s second administration negotiating with Washington over frequently evolving tariff threats.
In January, Trump said he would impose sweeping new tariffs on eight key European allies unless Denmark agreed to hand over Greenland, before walking back those threats. Europe also spent last spring negotiating with the U.S. as Trump sought to reshape global trade through tariffs.
On both occasions, Trump’s threats received a major backlash from European allies, including threats to deploy the bloc’s “Anti-Coercion Instrument,” a policy option sometimes referred to as the E.U.’s trade “bazooka.”
The ACI would allow the European Commission to target nearly any U.S. goods or services in Europe with a wide range of restrictions and barriers.
This time around, Europe’s reaction appeared more muted, which one analyst said could be a tactical approach from the continent’s leaders.
“I suspect European leaders are just waiting to see how Trump’s Plan B develops before wading in and risking retaliation in some other way,” Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University in London, told NBC News.
He noted Europe is still keen to keep Trump on its side over Ukraine, adding: “For all they know, he’ll try to punish them for the Supreme Court’s decision by being even more of a liability than he already is over Ukraine.”
Friday’s Supreme Court ruling invalidated the vast majority of U.S. tariffs that were in effect, except for some sector-specific duties such as those on autos, car parts and semiconductor chips.
For some, Trump’s universal tariff will remain the same despite the revised level, but it will still result in a major cut to tariffs applied to most key trading partners.
America’s top trading partners, including Mexico, Canada and China, will likely see a big reduction in overall rates. Other major trading partners, such as India and Brazil, are also set to see a reduction in duties.
But David Lubin, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, a London-based think tank, said the ruling was not necessarily a win for China as an economic rival.
The Supreme Court verdict gives China an edge “to the extent that this episode makes U.S. policymaking look chaotic,” he told NBC News.
But “seen in another light, this is a victory for the rule of law,” he added, which serves to “remind the world that one of the things that made America great was the strength of its institutions.”
Trump is set to travel to China at the end of March, with tariffs in focus as he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“I don’t think China wins or loses from this,” Lubin said. “In any case, there’s a determination on both sides, I think, not to rock the boat before Trump goes to Beijing.”
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