(Bloomberg) — Scandinavian finance chiefs said the European Union needs to stand firm in its tariff talks with the US as the bloc seeks to end the costly uncertainty triggered by the protracted trade talks.
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The EU should act swiftly and remain open to using all available tools as it approaches the negotiation deadline, Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson said.
“We shouldn’t rule out any options, but we need to be tough,” Svantesson told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Thursday. “We have to be quite frank, quite quick now, to reach a deal because we have waited so long.”
The US has set a deadline of August 1 after which it has said tariffs of 30% will be imposed on EU goods triggering a scramble by the bloc’s leaders to strike a better deal before that date. EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic has expressed frustration at the US administration for its move as Brussels believed it was very close to an agreement before the latest salvo.
The Nordic nations have had the least favorable view of the US in western Europe after Donald Trump got re-elected as the president, according to public opinion polls.
A growing number of EU member states want to trigger its most powerful trade tool, the so-called anti-coercion instrument, against the US should the two sides fail to reach an agreement, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The US has resisted lowering agricultural tariffs, exemptions for cars and wine.
While it’s important the EU remains constructive in the trade talks and seeks to find solutions, the bloc should be firm that it is ready to defend its own interests, Denmark’s Minister for Economic Affairs Stephanie Lose said in a separate interview on Thursday.
“The European Union will not stand up for everything,” Lose said. “We will of course be ready to take the necessary countermeasures.” She added it’s still too early to say what such measures might look like.
The EU has already prepared a list of countermeasures to target US goods worth €72 billion ($84 billion), including Boeing Co. aircraft, automobiles and bourbon if it decides to retaliate against Trump’s tariff policy.
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