By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
LUXEMBOURG (Worthy News) – The European Union said Monday it was scaling back its response to U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s tariffs on imported goods and even offered a “zero-for-zero” tariff deal to avoid a trade war.
The announcement by the EU’s executive European Commission came as EU ministers agreed to “prioritize negotiations” while striking back with 25 percent tariffs on only some U.S. imports.
EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said Monday that the 27-nation bloc’s retaliation would impact less than the previously announced 26 billion euros ($28.4 billion). The tariffs for most of the goods will go into effect May 16 and some from December 1, giving more time for negotiations.
Ministers overseeing trade met in Luxembourg on Monday to debate the EU’s response and discuss relations with China.
Several ministers said the priority was to launch negotiations to remove Trump’s tariffs rather than fight them.
Michal Baranowski, Poland’s deputy economy minister, told a press conference after the meeting that his EU counterparts did not want to be “trigger-happy.”
Sefcovic stressed that talks with Washington were at an early stage and that he had offered “zero-for-zero” tariffs for cars and other industrial products, expressing hope that discussions could begin soon.
BILLIONS QUESTIONED
“The measures no longer add up to 26 billion euros,” Commissioner Sefcovic said at a press conference on Monday. “We listened carefully to the member states and aim to share the burden fairly.”
Brussels also intends to reinstate some retaliatory tariffs from Trump’s first term, including duties on jeans, Harley Davidsons, and bourbon, Worthy News established.
However, bourbon has reportedly been removed from the list after intense lobbying by Paris. The French government fears a backlash from Trump, who has threatened to impose a 200 percent duty on champagne in retaliation.
Insiders said the EU’s revised countermeasures are now worth about 20 billion euros ($21.9 billion), and a final decision is expected on Wednesday.
It followed another bloody day on financial markets, with indexes dropping in Europe and worldwide, although investors also bought stocks that dropped at record lows.
“U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff ‘wrecking ball’ swung through financial markets again on Monday, sending investors scuttling for cover and wiping hundreds of billions of dollars more off the value of global stocks,” summarized Reuters news agency the situation.
And a wrecking ball it was.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has suspended nearly 500,000 federal credit cards across more than 30 agencies in a sweeping move to curb wasteful government spending.
The Interior Department will transfer nearly 110,000 acres of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border to the U.S. Army, creating a new base where troops could detain trespassers, including migrants, as part of President Trump’s border security push, which aims to deter illegal crossings.
An American pastor who was abducted last Thursday during his sermon at a church in South Africa‘s port city of Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province, has been rescued in a shootout, that left three suspects dead, Christians told Worthy News.
At least three Christian children have died in Pakistan’s Punjab province after a suspected Islamic extremist distributed poisoned sweets among Christian kids, several sources told Worthy News Tuesday.
A new spate of attacks in Nigeria killed at least 113 people, many of them Christians, well-informed sources told Worthy News on Tuesday.
An American missionary who was detained in Tunisia for over a year on charges of espionage has spent his first days in freedom after the United States secured his release, Worthy News learned Tuesday.
Israel is expected to receive a significant arms shipment from the United States in the coming weeks, including over 3,000 munitions for the Israeli Air Force, as it prepares for ongoing operations in Gaza and a possible strike on Iran, Israeli officials said Monday.