EU to Trump on tariffs: Go ahead, make our day.

BRUSSELS — The European Union said on Thursday it was ready to deploy its strongest trade weapon against the U.S. after President Donald Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs and scorned the EU as having been created to “screw” America.

“We have an Anti-Coercion Instrument, and we will have to use it,” Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen said in Paris after meeting with his French counterpart Annie Genevard at the Salon de l’Agriculture farming exhibition.

Designed following the first Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, the bloc's “trade bazooka” provides for broad retaliation in response to trade discrimination, such as quotas and tariffs or restrictions on foreign investment. 

The commissioner’s comments came a day after Trump threatened to hit the EU with sweeping 25-percent tariffs "on cars and all other things," provoking fury across the Atlantic — with politicians saying the time had come for Brussels to retaliate. 

“We will not let ourselves be bullied, not with tariffs nor with threats about our legislation,” said Bernd Lange, a usually mild-mannered German Social Democrat who chairs the European Parliament’s international trade committee.

Trump’s broadside was a distillation of the trade grievances he had aired on the campaign trail and that he has stepped up since taking office a month ago. He again complained that Europe didn’t buy U.S. cars or food and lamented America's huge transatlantic trade deficit, which he pegged at a vastly exaggerated $300 billion.

Although the U.S. supported a united Europe after World War II within a strategic plan to create a democratic bulwark against the Soviet Union, Trump offered a different account: “The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States,” he said. “That’s the purpose of it. They have done a good job of it, but now I am president.”

For European leaders, that crossed a line.

"The EU wasn’t formed to screw anyone," retorted Polish PM Donald Tusk in a post on X. "Quite the opposite. It was formed to maintain peace, to build respect among our nations, to create free and fair trade, and to strengthen our transatlantic friendship. As simple as that."

Hansen’s threat to use the Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) also went beyond the previous position taken by EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, who on his first visit to Washington last week said deploying the ACI was only a hypothetical possibility.

Poking the bear

Trump plans to reinstate tariffs on steel and aluminum from March 12. More wide-ranging tariffs could land as soon as the start of April.

From there, things could escalate quickly. 

“The European Commission must take swift countermeasures in reaction to Trump’s tariff war,” Belgian lawmaker Kathleen Van Brempt, vice chair of the European Parliament’s trade committee, posted on X.

“Giving in to this bullying behaviour is not an option. We must now protect European companies and families from the impact of the American measures.”

Before triggering the ACI, which would need the backing of 15 out of the EU's 27 member countries, the bloc’s first resort would be to reinstate punitive duties that it imposed in response to Trump’s first-term tariffs — on Harley Davidson motorbikes, Kentucky bourbon or Florida orange juice. These would likely be expanded to reflect the scale of Trump’s new tariffs.

European automakers have everything to fear from Trump’s trade grievances — not merely that Europe’s tariff of 10 percent is four times that of the U.S., but also his team’s tendentious claim that value-added taxes of around 20 percent also represent a trade barrier.

If the Commission makes good on its promises to inflict equal pain on the U.S., German luxury carmaker BMW would be the first to be caught in the crossfire. Its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina — a conservative bastion that voted for Trump last November — exported nearly 225,000 vehicles last year, the company said before Trump’s remarks. 

Short half-life

All the more mind-boggling for European leaders is just how quickly their diplomacy wears off on Trump.

Only 24 hours before, French President Emmanuel Macron had put on a masterclass in how to handle an irascible potentate. He even gave an interview on Fox News, Trump’s favorite TV channel, urging him to prosecute a trade war against China — and not against Europe.

Macron’s charm offensive gave way to grim realism on Thursday, with French budget minister Eric Lombard warning that should Trump confirm the tariffs, “Europe will do the same.”

“It is a scenario we are getting prepared for,” Industry Minister Marc Ferracci told reporters at a press conference in Paris after hosting a meeting of EU ministers on how to rescue the bloc’s struggling steel industry. 

Italy’s Industry Minister Adolfo Urso, speaking alongside Ferracci, suggested that Europe could avoid U.S. tariffs by yielding to Trump’s demands — while also calling for unity and warning against a trade war. One way to placate Trump, he hinted, would be to accommodate his demands to boost European defense spending.

“Tariffs are the tip of the iceberg, but the answer to tariffs is in other aspects,” he said. 

Camille Gijs, Jordyn Dahl and Bartosz Brzeziński reported from Brussels. Giorgio Leali reported from Paris.