The Trump administration imposed fresh tariffs on European Union goods Friday, catching Brussels off guard and raising questions about the durability of transatlantic trade agreements. Washington levied 10% and 12.5% tariffs on EU exports over alleged failures to enforce forced labour bans — a rationale EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas rejected outright.
"You can't say that for the European Union," Kallas told Reuters 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."
The tariffs hit 60 trading partners just as a temporary 10% global tariff expired. They're the latest attempt to restore President Donald Trump's campaign vision of near-global tariffs after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his "reciprocal" tariffs earlier this year — tariffs imposed under emergency powers to shrink the U.S. trade deficit.
A Deal Broken
Kallas said the EU wasn't expecting the move. "Who can keep track of the tariffs going on and off?" she said. "No, we were not expecting this."
Brussels will seek clarification from Washington, she added. The bloc had honoured commitments under a transatlantic trade agreement reached one year ago and viewed the new tariffs as a breach of trust. "We had a deal with America and we have kept to that deal, that side of the deal," Kallas said. "That's why this is a negative surprise that this agreement is not kept."
The tariffs underscore the fragility of EU-US trade relations even when formal agreements are in place. European exporters now face higher costs in the American market, potentially eroding competitiveness against non-tariffed rivals.
Russia Sanctions Tighten
Separately, Kallas defended the European Union's 21st sanctions package against Russia, approved Thursday by the Council of the EU. The package targets Russia's banking sector and cryptocurrency networks as Moscow continues its war in Ukraine.
"It is to deprive them of the financing of this war," Kallas said. She argued 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."
Kallas described sanctions as 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 U.S. tariffs expose a recurring problem for European policymakers: Washington's willingness to disregard negotiated agreements when domestic politics shift. Brussels invested diplomatic capital in last year's transatlantic trade deal, only to see it undermined without warning. That unpredictability makes long-term economic planning harder for European businesses and raises questions about whether the EU should pursue closer trade integration with more reliable partners. Meanwhile, the 21st sanctions package against Russia signals Europe's continued commitment to economic pressure on Moscow — but the cumulative fiscal and energy costs of that strategy fall disproportionately on member states closest to the conflict. National governments are left managing the economic fallout while Brussels sets the policy.