The European Union, taken as a whole, is the largest American trade partner. It does the president Trump’s fresh tariffs Particularly painful for the 27 nation block-but also gives it a unique amount of economic weight to insert it in response.

In hours after Mr. Trump Tariph announcements On Wednesday, European leaders began to make it clear that they were planning it.

Among the possibilities: impose trade obstacles for US services, especially giant technological companies like Google that perform a huge amount of EU business. And policy creators are already completing tariff lists that could enter into force as soon as possible as soon as in mid -April. Representatives of the Member States are expected to vote about them next week, a senior European official said on Thursday, and anonymously speaking about short journalists.

Officials could add to these lists to the following weeks, in response to and to the car tariffs and to the European Union, as well as to the car tariffs, and to the freshly announced 20 -firm tax on the European Union. They have not yet committed to a particular plan.

Commenting on the new US tariffs early Thursday morning, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the EU Executive Hand, said: “It seems that there is no order in the disorder, there is no clear path to the complexity and the chaos that is being created,” adding that Europeans felt “our oldest ally”.

The European Union has been built around free trade and cooperation, and its leaders remain unwavering that the tariffs are bad for everyone. Europe is still trying to encourage active discussions, and said EU trade commissioner On social media On Thursday, he would talk to his US colleagues tomorrow.

But US officials have For now shown A small appetite for rapid resolution. Members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet was sometimes difficult to come or even Canceled meetings at their European counterparts.

While Howard Lutnick, a trade secretary, spoke with a trade commissioner, it is unclear how much it affects Mr. Lutnick on what is ultimately happening.

At the same time, the White House created the habit of criticizing the EU, and Mr. Trump expressed consistent animation. He has not met with Mrs. von der Leyen since he took his duty. He said the block was created to “fuck” the United States. During the announcement of Rose Garden about his new tariffs, he said that the EU had chased America in a way that was “pathetic”.

Later on Wednesday, Mr. Lutnick told Fox News that Europe refused to take American beef “because our beef is beautiful – and their weak,” calling her “amazing.”

Fresh wave tariff is the latest move of Mr. Trump Shake the way American alliances act. The White House is already pressing on Europe to spend more on its own defense and gave up support to Ukraine in its war with Russia in a way that has Sent shock waves through the continent.

The turning of the United States on military issues is coming, as the EU Defense Ministers meet on Thursday in Warsaw, and as the Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs, NATO gather in Brussels. Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, is At a NATO meeting.

But the deepening trade war further turns a transatlantic partnership into a transatlantic rift, and the last announcement of Mr. Trump could have far -reaching consequences that change forever the relationship between America and his long -standing allies.

The EU is probably the most important American economic relationship. It alone He is responsible for almost a fifth of US imports and European consumers are huge US Services.

However, the officials of Americans made it clear that what they wanted was to remodel the global trade system, which left Brussels by grabbing for tools that could give him a certain advantage in discussions.

There could be the services.

European officials have already produced plans to put tariffs on a wide range of physical products in response to the recently imposed Billing of steel and aluminum.

Officials could set up additional goods in response to car tariffs and the newly announced wave. But their fiery power when it comes to physical products is a bit limited: Europe sells Americans more goods than they buy from them.

In services, this balance is revealed. European consumers are a special market for US technological products, from search engine to cloud services. In 2023, the European Union led a minor deficit with the United States 109 billion euros (Nearly $ 120 billion).

Although this makes the aim of services of trade potentially powerful tools, it is also unusual.

Brussels has several tools in its arsenal that could target services, but by far the most powerful option is a new weapon called the “anti-organic instrument”. Created 2021 And in force Only since 2023Allows the EU to hit a trade partner with a “wide range of possible countermeasures.”

Such measures may include tariffs, restrictions on services trade and aspects of aspects of the right to intellectual property associated with trade. This means that the EU could hit large technological companies, like Google. Several European diplomats have said that its use is a distinct possibility if a trade war is escalated.

French official It made it clear On Thursday, internet services could be on cross -haired hairs, and German officials also talked about the need to Increase pressure in the United States.

The use of weapons requires discussions within the EU -the effort to correct the problem with a trade partner. The fastest limit can be fully in place are probably about six months old, said Joanna Redelbach, who is an adviser at the Van Bael & Bellis law firm and who is carefully analyzed it.

Still, it is a potentially strong threat.

“Once it is triggered, the Commission can go very far in the way it responds,” she said, referring to the EU Executive Hand, the European Commission.

The use of tools would escalate a trade war that Brussels has until he tried to make it. And Europe is often missing domestic alternatives when it comes to search engines or cloud services.

“That would be carefully calibrated,” said Jorn Fleck, a senior director of the European Center in the Atlantic Council, a research institute. “It’s hard to do.”

However, it becomes clear to Europe that simple options are small and far between.

“To prevent complete escalation, we would have to see progress in the next two to four weeks,” said Mujtaba Rahman, director for Eurasia Group, a political research company.

But he added that the challenge and reality that could lead to painful escalation before the deescation was that Trump’s administration replied that he did not respond to carrots and offer negotiation-taktica that Europe had tried to show power by now.

“You have to hit the administration in the face,” he said. “Punch has to land.”