European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas rejected Washington's justification for imposing new tariffs on European goods, calling allegations of weak forced labour controls "unfounded" and warning that the Trump administration has violated last year's transatlantic trade agreement. "You can't say that for the European Union," Kallas told Reuters on Friday on the sidelines of ASEAN meetings in Manila. "If you compare our labour laws to the ones of the United States, I mean, we have paid vacations, we have very good labour conditions for our employees, so it's not really grounded."
On Friday, the Trump administration imposed new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, including the European Union, over allegations of lax enforcement of forced labour bans, just as a temporary 10% global tariff expires. The tariffs are the latest effort to restore President Donald Trump's campaign vision of a near-global tariff after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year struck down the "reciprocal" tariffs he imposed under emergency powers in a bid to shrink the U.S. trade deficit.
EU Caught Off Guard
Asked whether the EU had expected to be included in the U.S. action, Kallas replied: "Who can't keep track of the tariffs going on and off? No, we were not expecting this." The foreign policy chief said the EU will seek clarification from Washington, adding that the bloc had honoured commitments under a transatlantic trade agreement reached last year and viewed the new tariffs as a shock. "We had a deal with America and we have kept to that deal, that side of the deal," she said. "That's why this is a negative surprise that this agreement is not kept."
The tariffs expose the fragility of transatlantic economic cooperation under an administration that treats multilateral agreements as disposable. European workers and businesses now face higher costs for accessing the U.S. market — not because of any documented labour rights violation, but because Washington has chosen unilateral economic coercion over dialogue. Europe's labour protections, including mandatory paid leave, collective bargaining rights, and workplace safety standards, far exceed those in the United States, making the forced labour pretext particularly difficult to defend.
Pressure on Russia Continues
Separately, Kallas said the European Union's latest sanctions package against Russia was aimed at putting more pressure on Moscow and limiting its ability to finance the war in Ukraine. "It is to deprive them of the financing of this war," she said. The European Union approved its 21st sanctions package against Russia over its war in Ukraine on Thursday, imposing curbs on the country's banking sector and cryptocurrency networks, the Council of the EU said.
Kallas said sanctions were having an effect on Russia's economy and have made it harder for Moscow to raise capital abroad. "We also see that due to the sanctions, they can't raise capital outside," she said. "It is clear that if we put this in place, it has an effect together with other elements." She added that sanctions were only one element of a broader European strategy to pressure Russia into serious negotiations with Ukraine. "We have different elements of this approach. The sanctions are just one of them," she said. "We are looking at what more we can do to pressure Russia to actually sit around the negotiation table and negotiate with Ukraine."
Why This Matters:
The Trump administration's decision to impose tariffs on the European Union despite a standing trade agreement undermines the rules-based international order that has underpinned transatlantic economic cooperation for decades. European businesses and workers now face uncertainty and higher costs, not because of policy failures in Brussels, but because Washington has chosen protectionism over partnership. The forced labour justification is particularly galling given Europe's stronger labour protections compared to the United States. Meanwhile, the EU's 21st sanctions package against Russia demonstrates the bloc's continued commitment to supporting Ukraine and isolating Moscow economically — a multilateral effort that stands in stark contrast to the unilateral tariff approach from Washington. Europe's challenge now is to defend its economic interests without abandoning the transatlantic alliance that remains essential for security and climate cooperation.