German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he will coordinate a joint EU response to new US tariffs ahead of talks with Donald Trump, as Washington raises import duties despite the Supreme Court’s ruling.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Saturday he will hold talks with European allies on a joint response to US tariffs, ahead of a visit to Washington to meet President Donald Trump.
“We will have a very clear European position on this, because customs policy is a matter for the European Union, not for individual member states,” Merz told the ARD broadcaster.
“I will be in Washington in just over a week,” he added. “And I will go to Washington with a common European position.”
Trump on Friday imposed an additional 10 percent tariff on imports into the United States after after the Supreme Court had struck down many of his sweeping duties imposed last year.
On Saturday Trump said he was raising the rate to 15 percent.
While noting Trump’s additional 10-percent tariff, Merz said he nevertheless expected German exporters to face fewer duties in the future and saw good news in the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“For me, there is a reassuring element in yesterday’s Supreme Court decision: the separation of powers in the USA still seems to be working,” he said. “That is good news.”
The court ruling was a stunning rebuke by the high court, which has largely sided with the president since he returned to office, and marked a major political setback in striking down Trump’s signature economic policy that has roiled the global trade order.
Saturday’s announcement is sure to provoke further uncertainty as Trump carries on with a trade war that has cajoled and punished countries, both friend and foe.
It is the latest move in a careening process that has seen a multitude of tariff levels for countries sending goods into the United States set and then altered or revoked by Trump’s team over the past year.
The new duty by law is only temporary – allowable for 150 days. According to a White House fact sheet, exemptions remain for sectors that are under separate probes, including pharma, and goods entering the US under the US-Mexico-Canada agreement.
On Friday, the White House said US trading partners that reached separate tariff deals with Trump’s administration would also face the new global tariff.
With inputs from agencies
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