Europe hits back at ‘pure tariff chaos’ from the U.S., warning trade deals are at risk

Europe has warned that trade deals struck with the U.S. could now be at risk after President Donald Trump unveiled a new global 15% tariff on all imports at the weekend.

Trump’s move came after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday struck down his global tariffs policy, implemented last spring, that had upset the long-standing global trading order.

The president reacted to the Supreme Court’s judgment by initially announcing a new universal 10% levy, using a different legal framework for the latest tariffs, but then increased the global tariff rate to 15% — the legal maximum which can be in place for 150 days before Congressional approval is required.

The new import duties are “effective immediately,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday.

Officials in Europe and London expressed alarm and consternation at the latest upheaval in global trade relations, saying Trump’s new tariff policy could upend trade deals signed with the U.S. last year.

They asked for more clarity from the White House as to what the new tariff policy framework means in practice for their respective trade deals, which saw most EU exports to the States hit with a 15% duty, and those from the U.K. slapped with a 10% levy.

“Pure tariff chaos from the U.S. administration,” the Chair of the European Parliament’s committee on International Trade, Bernd Lange, reacted to the White House on Sunday.

“No one can make sense of it anymore — only open questions and growing uncertainty for the EU and other U.S. trading partners,” Lange wrote on social media platform X.

“Do new tariffs … not constitute a breach of the deal? Regardless, no one knows whether the US will adhere to it – or even be able to,” Lange said, adding that “clarity and legal certainty are needed before any further steps are taken.”

The European Parliament’s trade committee is due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss Trump’s latest trade move, and Lange said he’ll propose suspending the implementation of the U.S.-EU trade deal until the bloc has “a comprehensive legal assessment and clear commitments from the U.S” regarding the latest tariffs.

The European Commission issued a statement Sunday noting that “a deal is a deal” and that it expected the U.S. “to honour its commitments … just as the EU stands by its commitments.” CNBC has asked the Commission for further comment.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told German broadcaster ARD that there would be “a very clear European position on this” ahead of his visit to the White House in early March, but he deferred to the European Commission in Brussels as to how the EU would respond to the tariffs.

However, French Trade Minister Nicolas Forissier suggested that Brussels could hit back at Washington. Speaking to the Financial Times, Forissier urged EU members to “be naive” and to adopt a united approach against the White House’s new trade position.

The U.K. has also questioned how the new tariff policy will affect its trade deal with the States, which, given its baseline 10% tariff rate, had put the country at a competitive advantage to its European neighbors.

“Under any scenario, we expect our privileged trading position with the U.S. to continue and will work with the administration to understand how the ruling will affect tariffs for the U.K. and the rest of the world,” a U.K. government spokesperson said at the weekend.

Europe’s bitter reaction to the new tariff policy means U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has his work cut out to reassure partners that trade deals agreed last summer still stand.

Greer defended Trump’s tariff stance on Sunday, saying the president’s trade policy has not changed fundamentally, and that trade deals still stand.

“The president’s policy was going to continue. That’s why they signed these deals, even while the litigation was pending. So we’re having active conversations with them. We want them to understand that these deals are going to be good deals. We expect to stand by them. We expect our partners to stand by them,” he told CBS’ Face the Nation.

“And I haven’t heard anyone yet come to me and say, ‘the deal’s off.’ They want to see how this plays out. I’m in active conversation with them on it,” he added.

On the face of it, current U.S. trade tariffs on the EU are not changing, with the new 15% rate the same as the rate under its trade deal. Exclusions still apply too, with pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, fertilizers and certain agricultural products exempt, while other tariffs on auto and steel exports remain the same.

Those with the lowest tariffs to begin with are ostensibly hurt more, however, with the U.K. at a notable disadvantage if its trade deal tariff rate is not honored.

On a trade-weighted basis, the U.K. faces a 2.1 percentage point increase in its average tariff rate, while the EU sees a 0.8 point rise, according to analysis from Swiss-based trade watchdog Global Trade Alert. In contrast, Brazil’s rate plunges 13.6 points, and China’s drops 7.1 points.

Tina Fordham, founder of Fordham Global Foresight, told CNBC Monday that the U.S.’ closest allies seem to be worst hit by what she described as the latest “trade chaos” but agreed more clarity was needed from U.S. officials.

“This is an administration that doesn’t think too much about second or third-order effects, and so what we’re seeing is that those countries that tried to get in early and do an advantageous deal when the president was first starting to talk about these levies … are being penalized,” she told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition.”

European markets opened lower on Monday, showing investor jitters over the latest tariff move. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned Sunday that the trans-Atlantic business relationship could suffer as a result of trade uncertainty.

“It’s critically important that all people in the trade, both outside of the United States, but also in the United States, have clarity about the future of the relationships,” she told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday.

“It’s a bit like driving. You want to know the rules of the road before you get in the car. It’s the same with trade,” she added.

“If it [the new tariffs policy] shakes the whole equilibrium which people in the trade had got used to … [it] is going to bring about disruptions in the business for sure,” she said.