30% US punitive tariffs: Hungary sharply criticises, Brussels warns
The EU responded constructively to the US punitive tariffs, but the Hungarian government is exploiting the situation and, instead of emphasizing unity, has once again voiced sharp criticism.
EU says US’ 30% tariff would rule out trade
According to Anadolu, the European Union warned Monday that the United States’ planned 30% tariff on EU goods would effectively rule out trade and vowed to use every minute before the Aug. 1 deadline to reach a negotiated solution.
Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen both underlined the bloc’s preference for dialogue but stressed unity.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington will impose 30% tariffs on the EU and Mexico starting on Aug. 1, putting US-EU trade talks at risk, as the bloc had aimed to finalize a comprehensive trade deal this month.
“The EU, as you know very well, never walks away without genuine effort,” Sefcovic said.
“Especially considering the hard work invested, how close we find ourselves to making a deal, and the clear benefits of the negotiated solution. But as I have said before, it takes two hands to clap.”
He said that talks with US partners at high levels are ongoing, including President Donald Trump and White House officials, adding: “We want to use every day, every possibility, and every minute until the first of August to find negotiated solution.”
Sefcovic said the proposed 30% tariff level is “absolute prohibitive to any trade,” emphasizing that the EU’s aim is to protect jobs, businesses, and the European economy.
“I was very open with my US counterparts, it has to be the agreement which would have a support of our member states of the European Parliament and it has to be the agreement which would be acceptable to us,” he added.
He also said the commission proposed that member states begin discussing a second package of rebalancing measures targeting around €72 billion ($84.2 billion) in US goods in response to the new tariffs.
Rasmussen said EU member states find the 30% tariff announcement “absolutely unacceptable and unjustified,” adding that member states are united in their opposition to the new US tariffs and stressed the bloc’s readiness to act if negotiations fail.
“We do not want a trade war with the US. We want to avoid it, and we had,” he said. “But we also want to send a clear signal that it must be a fair deal for everybody, and if that’s not possible to reach, then we will leave out no options.”
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Hungary also speaks out on US tariffs
The Hungarian government expects the European Commission to reach an agreement with the United States that would prevent planned punitive tariffs within two weeks, Levente Magyar, a state secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said in Brussels on Monday.
After a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, Magyar warned that the punitive tariffs would have serious economic consequences.
The ministers at the meeting discussed the state of play of trade negotiations after the announcement in Washington, DC, at the weekend of a planned 30pc tariff on European imports from August 1.
Magyar said the measure was a “serious escalation” and blamed the European Commission for failing to reach a fair agreement with the Americans that would protect European interests.
“We expect the Commission to come up with a way to reach an agreement with the Americans in the coming two weeks to avoid the 30pc punitive tariff, because if that materialises, it will hurt European competitiveness and have an extraordinarily negative impact on Hungary,” he added.
“We are not willing to let Hungary, Hungarian businesses and Hungarian workers pay the price for the Commission’s mistakes,” he added.
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