MELONI’S WARNING
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement Sunday: “A trade war within the West would weaken us all in the face of the global challenges we are confronting together.
“Europe has the economic and financial strength to assert its position and reach a fair and sensible agreement.”
Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has unleashed sweeping stop-start tariffs on allies and competitors alike, roiling financial markets and raising fears of a global economic downturn.
But his administration is coming under pressure to secure deals with trading partners after promising a flurry of agreements.
So far, US officials have only unveiled two pacts, with Britain and Vietnam, alongside temporarily lower tit-for-tat duties with China.
The European Union, alongside dozens of other economies, had been set to see its US tariff level increase from a baseline of 10 per cent on Jul 9, but Trump pushed back the deadline to Aug 1.
In a letter published on Saturday, Trump cited the United States’ trade imbalance with the bloc as justification for the new 30 per cent levies.
The EU tariff is markedly steeper than the 20 per cent levy Trump had unveiled in April, before hitting pause as markets went into meltdown.
