Berlin, Germany – February 24: Robert Habek, a candidate for the German Greens Social gathering, spoke to the media on the day after the German parliamentary elections on February 24, 2025 in Berlin, Germany. The Greens got here in fourth place with 11.6% of the vote, which is 2.9% in comparison with earlier elections. (Sean Gallup Photograph/Getty Pictures)
Sean Galup Getty Pictures Information | Ghetto photos
US President Donald Trump will “cowl up underneath strain” and alter his tariff insurance policies if Europe is united, stated German economic system minister Robert Habek on Thursday.
“That is what I see that Donald Trump will likely be fixed underneath strain, that he’s adjusting his messages underneath strain, however the logical consequence is that he then has to really feel strain,” he stated throughout a press convention, in response to CNBC translation.
“And this strain should now be deployed from Germany, from Europe within the Union with different nations, after which we’ll see who’s stronger on this struggle towards the hand,” Habek stated.
Permitting Trump to proceed or attempt to reassure him, it could not be a profitable technique underneath any circumstances, he added, noting that the reply needs to be a “dedication day”.
Strategically, the aim needs to be to keep away from tariffs and the commerce conflict, however the query was tips on how to get there, stated the Minister of Economic system.
Habck additionally urged Europe to make strategic investments extra unbiased – for instance, by bettering their cloud infrastructure and increasing its synthetic intelligence and cosmic capability capabilities.
“We simply cannot depend that everybody is already pleasant to us,” he stated, stating that he had realized a lesson within the tough approach when the German economic system was badly affected by its dependence on Russian power after the beginning of the conflict in Russia-Ukrana.
Germany paid “a excessive worth for this blindness, for this blindness of financial and power coverage” and this shouldn’t be repeated in “all different areas,” Habek stated, suggesting that it’s a job for the incoming authorities.
“Poorly thought out selections”
Elsewhere, the outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Skolz stated he believed that Trump’s most ranked tariff options had been “radically improper”, in response to CNBC translation.
The measures are an assault on the world commerce order and “dangerous thought by options” will result in struggling for the world economic system, Scholz stated. The US administration is on the highway that may solely result in losses, he added.
On Wednesday, Trump imposed 20% of the European Union taxes, together with within the largest economic system of the block, since he signed Elevated and aggressive coverage for “reciprocal tariff”.
Germany is taken into account broadly as one of many nations that may in all probability be most affected by Trump’s tariffs, given its heavy financial studying of commerce.
America is crucial buying and selling accomplice in Germany earlier than China, with commerce turnover – the sum of exports and imports – the quantity of 252.8 billion euros ($ 278.7 billion) in 2024, in response to the German Statistics Service DestatisS Final yr, the US additionally received the biggest share of German exports.
The German index Dake It was final about 1.6% to 10:42 pm London’s time, whereas the German authorities bonds had been sharply decrease. The yield of 10-year package Final decreased by over 7 fundamental factors to 2.648percentwhereas 2-year package The yield broke up with greater than 11 fundamental factors to 1.93%.
EU preparation of counteractions
Additionally, in response to the event of the White Home, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen stated the European Union was getting ready measures to counteract the newest charges by US President Donald Trump if the negotiations fail.
“We’re able to reply,” she stated. “We at the moment are getting ready for extra anti -counteract measures to guard our pursuits and our enterprise if the negotiations fail.”
However von der Leyen additionally referred to as for a change from “confrontation to negotiation” as she prompt that it was not too late for EU -US talks
The German Scholz on Thursday repeated the requires cooperation and prompt that Europe would defend its pursuits.
“Europe will react United, robust and proportional to the US determination,” he stated.
