EU Readies Measures Against Possible Trump Tariffs

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

The EU wants to avoid a trade conflict with the US, but it will be ready to respond if Donald Trump wins the election and acts on his threat to hit Europe with punitive trade measures. The bloc has prepared a list of US goods it could target with tariffs, we’re told. Speaking to Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait in an interview in Chicago, Trump defended his tariff-heavy plan, saying his proposals were for the “protection of the companies that we have here and the new companies that will move in.” Pushing back on projections that tariffs would harm Americans whose jobs depend on trade, Trump said, “The higher the tariff, the more likely it is that the company will come into the United States, and build a factory in the United States so it doesn’t have to pay the tariff.” The EU’s favored approach would still be to seek an agreement with Trump on some areas of common interest.