Trump’s trade war threatens €549B of EU goods, Brussels warns

U.S. President Donald Trump's probes into pharmaceuticals, raw materials and semiconductors — combined with sweeping tariffs already applied against the European Union — are expected to hit a total of €549 billion of EU exports, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič said.

In other words, they would cover 97 percent of total EU exports to the United States, the European Commission estimates.

The U.S. administration has launched investigations on lumber, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, critical minerals as well as trucks — all priority areas where the Trump administration wants to “reshore” production.

“If all these investigations lead to unjustified, harmful tariffs, then another €170 billion of EU exports to the U.S. would be impacted. This means that, in total, around €549 billion of EU exports to the US, i.e. 97 percent of the total, would be subject to tariffs,” Šefčovič told European lawmakers in Strasbourg.

The remarks come after the European Union estimated that Trump’s tariffs, combining the 20 percent “reciprocal” tariff on the EU and the 25 percent tariff on cars, car parts, steel and aluminum, would hit around €380 billion of EU goods — or 70 percent of the bloc’s exports to the United States.

The U.S. collected around €7 billion euros in duties on EU exports last year. That figure would surge to as much as €100 billion if the ongoing investigations result in tariffs, Šefčovič estimated.

Brussels is currently aiming to take advantage of a temporary pause to negotiate away the tariffs imposed by Trump that lapses on July 8. Although the bloc has been spared the 20 percent levy for now, a baseline universal levy of 10 percent remains in force.

The Commission’s top trade official, Sabine Weyand, is leading a delegation of high-level technical experts for talks on Tuesday and Wednesday in the U.S. capital, an EU official said. It’s the first encounter between Brussels and Washington since the Commission spelled out its retaliation playbook last week.

This story has been updated.