Fundamentally, how Germany’s outgoing Prime Minister Olaf Scholz describes the new Trump tariffs.

Unilateral attack – This is the view of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

French President Emmanuel Macron calls them cruel and unfounded and will certainly have a “huge impact” on the European economy.

He convened an emergency meeting to hold tariffs on EU goods sold to the United States with representatives of the most recently announced EU goods tariffs, and appealed to European companies, “Don’t invest in the United States for a period of time until we clarify things.”

“What message will we send when we hit us when we are going to invest billions of euros in the U.S. economy?” he said.

For France it is the wine, champagne and aviation industry, for Germany, its cars, for Italy it is a luxury. As we all know, these departments sell well abroad and are now at risk of being taxed by the U.S. imports.

Overall, the EU’s chemical, machinery and equipment industry is seen as the most vulnerable to tariffs.

But it might be surprising to dig deeper, and there are other EU sectors that rely on the U.S. market.

Often regarded as the tip food for older Europeans, Cognac is the choice of many American rappers, playing a major role in the music and lifestyle of stars such as Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg. More than 40% of French brandy is exported to the United States.

Spain, along with a large amount of olive oil, exports many gas turbines to the United States.

When we look at countries where EU countries are best exposed to the United States at GDP, this photo is not what you might think.

Ireland is highly dependent on the United States in terms of goods and services. These exports – have many links to the pharmaceutical industry (currently not subject to 20% tariffs until the United States raises its own production) and also account for one-fifth of Ireland’s GDP.

Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta have higher exposure to service exports than the EU average.

In terms of cargo, Belgium, the Netherlands and Slovakia are in similar positions.

Germany has greater exposure to the United States than other major EU economies, accounting for more than 5% of GDP, followed by Italy (about 4%), France (3%) and Spain (just over 2%). These figures were sorted out in 2024 Research by Caixabank is based on European statistics from the previous year.

At the EU headquarters in Brussels, the response to the new U.S. tariffs are being coordinated. The European Commission handles all overall trade matters of the group members.

Committee Chairman Ursula von der Leyen claimed they had “a large number of cards”, including the power of negotiations and the power to postpone.

The U.S. economy is strong. It accounts for 25% of global GDP.

However, the EU’s single market with 450 million people (the world’s largest single market) is very close to 22% of global GDP.

So yes, the EU could bite people when it comes to retaliation against Donald Trump’s tariffs – and it’s hard. Especially as the EU suggests, the group targets U.S. services like Big Tech like Apple, Meta, Amazon and even Elon Musk’s Platform X.

But this could trigger a new rebound from the Trump administration. The EU wants to avoid raising the ante.

If you think about politics more than economics, the EU has less room to manipulate than you think.

Using energy supply, the EU has been buying U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) after it was weaned from Russian gas after its full invasion of Ukraine.

The tricky thing about reducing or levying a lot of taxes on these imports. This will seriously affect EU consumers, not only the U.S. industry, but relations with the U.S. have deteriorated.

Think of all the recent defense spending and Ukraine’s journey. In addition to the economic hell the EU sees and wants to avoid in the new Trump tariffs, the group does want to avoid the trade war with countries that were once Europe’s best friends.

So Brussels’ plan is to threaten major revenge, hope Donald Trump is convinced to negotiate, and then pray that he will turn around the tariffs.

Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade commissioner, said he was talking to his U.S. counterparts on Friday. This is an opening remark. The EU will not rush to retaliate.

The Trump administration has ruled out any countries that negotiate from new tariffs before live broadcast this weekend. But after that, can the EU convince him to retreat?

Trump’s huge trade surplus with the EU drove people crazy. It sells far more goods than it buys from the United States. The surplus in 2024 is approximately US$20 billion (€180 million; US$15.3 billion).

In terms of service, this is another aspect – the United States sells far more than the other way around. That’s why the EU believes its main retaliatory leverage against the United States will be services such as banks and large-scale technologies.

To correct the imbalance of goods, the EU can provide more LNG or more military equipment from the United States, following its assurance to Washington to make more LNG for its own safety.

But that will undermine another EU commitment – trying to buy the EU to promote the withered weapons industry when re-arming EU countries. This is something the United States has already opposed, so it’s tricky.

Brussels could also cut direct and indirect tariffs on U.S. goods. It could lose quotas for U.S. agricultural products.

Very reluctant to comply with another U.S. requirement: watering its highly-received digital regulations aimed at limiting monopoly and limiting restrictions on speech and content in the EU.

EU officials asked, how do you price amid the possible collapse of the international trading system.

European companies are concerned about their own markets that are flooded with cheap goods from non-EU countries, which are also subject to markets that Trump has tariffs and are trying to sell elsewhere.

Regarding China, the risks are very real. When you add it all, Trump’s tariffs on Beijing exceed 50%.

Will the EU have to increase import tariffs on Chinese goods to protect itself, and will this lead to an unexpected trade war with China?

These are economic times of anxiety.

That’s why the European Commission said it also wants to focus on what it can control if the EU capital agrees – which is reducing internal barriers within the EU’s single market.

These barriers (such as taxation systems) vary from country to country and affect the overall economic growth and competitiveness of the EU.

The IMF calculates a tariff equivalent to 45% of the EU manufacturing industry. 110% in terms of service.

That’s far higher than the tariffs Donald Trump now imposes on the EU.

EU countries say they unite to fight it. So far, they have completed their own internal markets.