EU Countries Go on Tariff Defense

Like the repercussions of the reworking of President Trump Global trade Finally throughout Europe, governments are implementing billions of “tariff shields” of euros to protect their economies, companies and workers from uncertainty and the growing perspective of a recession.

Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain have announced over 50 billion euros of financial support this week while the companies have paused the exports to the United States, have warned a blow to their finances and calculated that they had put the employees. More European countries will follow.

The 90 days of Mr. Trump suspension of US rates This week he collected hopes in Europe for negotiations, but the damage has already been done. A serious route in financial markets He aggravated the problem, stimulating governments to find life at a time when their budgets are crushed by higher military spending while Trump revolves towards Russia from Ukraine.

The tariff break is “fragile”, President Emmanuel Macron in France warned on Friday, because the rates of 25 % on steel, aluminum and cars and the rates of 10 % on all the other products are still in place, which represent 52 billion euros of withdrawals for the European Union.

“Europe must continue to work on all the necessary countermeasures and mobilize all the levers available to protect themselves,” he said in an X post. He added that the French entrepreneurs and industrialists told him that their activities were already affected “right to the heart” by the rates of Mr. Trump.

The whisk of the Tariff ads It has already led to lower growth forecasts. France, Germany, Italy and Spain – the largest European economies – have downgraded their economic perspectives this week and the Moody rating agency declared in a new analysis that the rates had increased the risk of a recession in Europe.

In Spain, which exports the products of 23 billion euros in the United States, including oil and chemicals of the olive, the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced a support package of 14 billion euros for companies affected by the commercial war.

Sánchez met the President Xi Jinping of China on Friday to strengthen commercial ties and won a Beijing commitment to buy more Spanish pig while tariff barriers climb to the United States. The “commercial and recovery plan plan” of Spain will include low cost credit for companies affected by orders reduced by American buyers or who come across liquidity problems. Spain also establishes 2 billion euros to ensure risks relating to the exports of companies.

There may also be a human toll: Spain will also revive a partial Furloough system modeled on that used during Covid’s pandemic to protect workers if companies are forced to reduce production.

“The world as we knew that it has changed, we must adapt and react,” said Prime Minister Luís del Montenegro del Portugal on Thursday to a news briefing.

His cabinet presented loans and other support measures for a value of over 10 billion euros on Thursday to support the economy and help the 70,000 exporters of the country, as well as foreign investors who transfer their activities to Portugal. The package includes funding for capital and investments and aid, subsidies and credit insurance for exporters.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni planned to visit Washington next week to talk to Mr. Trump of the rates in an attempt to avoid restoration. The United States are an important market for Italian machinery, pharmaceutical products and cars, not to mention foods such as Parmesan and skin and luxury products.

Mrs. Meloni defined the “wrong” rates and said on Wednesday who planned to regain up to 25 billion euros that Italy received from the post-playmical recovery plan of the European Union to help compensate the pain from the tariff war.

He said that his government had identified around 14 billion euros that could be redirected to “support employment and increase productivity”. Another 11 billion euros from another EU fund intended for economic development could also be re -proposed, he added.

The rates of Mr. Trump are adding another challenge to the attempts of the new German government Joopy his economyEurope is larger. The move risks increasing prices for US consumers on well -known brands still “made in Germany”, by Porsche and Jägermeister to Fischer amplifiers and Harry’s razors.

A new coalition government, led by the next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, this week announced the Germany fund, which aims to strengthen the economy. Germany was already faltering its third consecutive year of recession in front of the rates of Mr. Trump, since the prices of the surgered energy caused by the Russian war in Ukraine have affected its manufacturing base.

The fund would be sown with 10 billion euros of public money, with the hope of collecting it for € 100 billion from private investors, to support small and medium -sized enterprises that form the backbone of the economy. The government is also committing a tax position on the companies to encourage the reductions in investments and energy prices.

After Mr. Trump reversed with retaliation rates on Wednesday, Merz said Europe should remain united to push for a favorable agreement.

“Europeans are determined to defend us and this example shows that unity helps above all,” he said on German television. “We do all the rates of 0 % on trans-Atlantic trade, and therefore the problem will be solved.”