Good morning, readers. Angela Skujins here with the final newsletter before the summer break, with Europe Today also expected to take a well-earned rest before returning 31 August.
Ahead of us sipping on a parasol-punctuated cocktail and melting into a banana lounge, it has been a mammoth 24-hours for the European Union, so let’s catch you up for this final, consequential dispatch.
What’s clear from two twin news items, from US tariffs to trade trips, is that the EU is between a rock and a hard place. The bloc is being squeezed by the world’s largest players: China and the US.
Another day, another tariff. Late Thursday night US President Donald Trump imposed new tariffs on at least 60 international partners, such as the EU, over forced labour claims. The new duties, ranging from 10 to 12.5%, replace the global 10% tariffs Trump introduced earlier this year, which expired at 12.01AM on the same day.
The EU’s top trade negotiator Bernd Lange described the measures as “crazy” on Euronews’ flagship morning programme Europe Today.
