US announcement of 30% tariffs on EU, Mexico sparks backlash from key trade partners
Global Times
Trade negotiations remain essential, but result may not reflect US unilateral demand: expert
By Chen Qingrui and Chu Daye Published: Jul 14, 2025 12:26 AM
Voices from some EU countries and Mexico, among top US trading partners and targets of the latest tariff threats, have slammed the US' move as unfair and damaging while reaffirming their plan to continue trade talks with the US before the tariffs take effect.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "strong disapproval" of the 30 percent US tariffs on EU exports. Macron on Sunday midnight posted on X that "Along with the President of the European Commission, France shares the same very strong disapproval at the announcement of horizontal 30 percent tariffs on EU exports to the United States from August 1st."
He slammed the announcement that came after weeks of intense engagement by the Commission in negotiations with the US on the basis of a solid offer made in good faith and stressed the need to speed up the preparation of credible countermeasures, "This implies speeding up the preparation of credible countermeasures by mobilizing all the instruments at its disposal, including anti-coercion, if no agreement is reached by August 1st," Macron wrote.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he will levy tariffs of 30 percent against the EU and Mexico starting on August 1, AP News reported on Sunday. The report noted this a move that could cause massive upheaval between the US and two of its biggest trade partners.
A senior European lawmaker stated on Saturday that Brussels should react immediately with countermeasures to the US' "outrageous" threat to hike tariffs on imports from the EU.
"It is brazen and disrespectful to increase the tariffs on European goods announced on April 2 from 20 percent to 30 percent," said Bernd Lange, head of the European Parliament's trade committee, per Reuters.
"This is a slap in the face for the negotiations. This is no way to deal with a key trading partner," he told Reuters. He added that Europe should make it clear that these "unfair trade practices" were unacceptable.
German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said on Sunday the European Union must take "decisive" measures against the United States if tariff negotiations fail to cool an escalating global trade war, according to Reuters. "If a fair negotiated solution does not succeed, then we must take decisive countermeasures to protect jobs and companies in Europe," Klingbeil, who is also vice chancellor in Germany's ruling coalition, told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
A Chinese expert said the US' move would deliver a significant blow to trade activity. He noted that the latest tariff hikes exceed the originally announced "reciprocal" rates, reflecting the US' attempt to achieve its intended goal of pressuring other countries into making concessions, and its attempt to force progress through heightened economic pressure.
US President announced the latest tariffs in separate letters to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum that were posted on his Truth Social media site on Saturday, according to Reuters on Saturday.
Von der Leyen, head of the EU executive which handles trade policy for the 27 member states, said the bloc was ready to keep working towards an agreement before August 1, but was willing to stand firm, per Reuters.
"We will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required," she said of possible retaliatory tariffs on US goods entering Europe. She noted that "A 30 percent tariff on EU exports would disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains, to the detriment of businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic."
Meanwhile, in a joint statement issued the same day on Saturday, Mexico's Ministries of Economy and Foreign Affairs said the government considers the move "unfair treatment" and has initiated negotiations with the US to protect businesses and jobs in both sides of the border.
Move angers allies
Reuters report noted the latest US tariff announcement as an escalation of a trade war that has angered US allies and rattled investors.
Experts noted that the potential "gains" the US might achieve from this tariff tactic remain highly uncertain.
Both sides may continue talks with the aim of eventually reaching an agreement, but any deal is unlikely to reflect the US' unilateral demand for other countries, Ma Wei, assistant research fellow at the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Recently the Trump administration sent a second set of tariff letters targeting six emerging economies - the Philippines (20 percent), Moldova (25 percent), Iraq (30 percent) and Brunei, Algeria and Libya - with those tariffs scheduled to begin on August 1.
The US will also impose a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods starting August 1, the highest rate announced so far in President Trump's recent letters to foreign governments, according to the Washington Post.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva responded in a forceful statement on X, declaring "Brazil is a sovereign country with independent institutions that will not accept being taken for granted by anyone."
Such unilateral trade policies will have broad implications, from the real economy to the financial system, said Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
Fuel market concerns
The latest round of US tariff pressure has already triggered negative market reactions, with mounting concerns driving further declines in US stock markets. Experts warned that further backlash is brewing.
US stocks ended lower on Friday, pulling back from record highs set a day earlier, after US announced a new 35 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada and warned of even broader tariff hikes, according to Xinhua News Agency.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 279.13 points, or 0.63 percent, to 44,371.51. The S&P 500 sank 20.71 points, or 0.33 percent, to 6,259.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 45.14 points, or 0.22 percent, to 20,585.53, the Xinhua said.
Earlier in the same week on July 7, the three major indexes suffered their worst single-day performance in about three weeks, according to CNN.
The Trump Administration has now notified the EU and 24 other countries, including many other key trading partners such as South Korea and Japan, that higher tariffs will take effect starting August 1.
Zhou told the Global Times on Sunday that rising uncertainty brought by US tariffs may push businesses toward short-term procurement.
Although the root causes of issues such as the hollowing out of US manufacturing and supply chain security have been identified, the solution of relying solely on high tariffs and trade protection does not truly address these problems, according to Ma, adding that tariffs are unlikely to achieve the goal of revitalizing manufacturing, and the US envisioned trade restructuring path is unlikely to succeed in practice.
According to a blog post by the World Bank dated July 7, Ayhan Kose, deputy chief economist of the World Bank Group and two other WB economists wrote that "as we cross the halfway point of 2025, mounting headwinds are slowing down global trade."
"We expect global trade growth to slow markedly this year, largely because of the cumulative effects of higher tariffs and elevated policy uncertainty," they wrote. "After a strong start to the year, partly driven by frontloading ahead of tariff hikes, annual trade growth is forecast to decelerate from 3.4 percent in 2024 to around 1.8 percent in 2025."
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