OR European Union negotiate with the USA Having a bazooka in her hands, but she can’t agree whether she will still hit the trigger.

In addition to the carefully worded message about a “analog” and “single” answer by all Block Ministers at their meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, the question of how to answer the answer to Trump’s tariff attack It threatens to open cracks in the fragile cohesion of the block, Politico notes.

European Commission President Ursula von der Laienne, speaking in Brussels yesterday while completing the meeting of the Ministers of Commerce, made it clear that the EU He wants to negotiate first. The block proposed mutual duties nihilism in industrial goods, he said, such as cars, medicines, chemicals, plastics and machines among others.

This is carrot, Politico notes, but it is an easy carrot, as transatlantic duties on industrial products were traditionally low.

As for the whip, the EU wants to create the impression that it is negotiating from a position of power, hoping that the turbulence in markets due to the duties it has launched will bend Trump’s militant spirit. However, member countries are divided over which whip they should use.

The EU has a “nuclear” weapon in its hands, as Politico says, Act of coercion measures (ACI), which provides the means to prevent and face a financial blackmail from a third country.

The EU, therefore, could decide to use it to hurt US services, such as Technology and Banks.

Trump’s duties – which would affect EU exports worth € 380 billion – are precisely the kind of financial bullying that the EU had in mind when designing the ACI.

However, although the “reciprocal” 20% duty on all EU goods is immediate (along with 25% of steel, aluminum and pre -existing cars), this does not mean that the “27” are ready to activate its bazooka. This, as a minister put it, would mean that the block is really in trade war.

The Europeans are lies as a blatant lies the allegations based on Trump to justify the duties and believe that the mathematical formula used to calculate them is equally stupid: the EU average duty on industrial products, for example, is 1.6%.

According to an internal document seen by Politico, the Commission is considering imposing duties of up to 25% on a wide range of US products in response to Trump’s duties on steel and aluminum.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, 27 vote on the 25% duties proposal on US products.

Up to here

Countries such as France, Germany and Spain have called for no choice from the table in dealing with the US president.

“Someone has to carefully consider ACI,” said outgoing German Minister of Economy Robert Hambek. “These are measures that are far beyond customs policy. They have a wide palette. They then include digital services, but have a wide range of media, much more than just through digital tax. “

Habek’s position found his Spanish colleague, Carlos Kuerpo, agree.

“The means of coercion exists to use it if we deem it necessary. But again, the message that the EU has to receive today is positive, “Kuerpo said in an interview with Politico. “We need to explore the use of all the means at our disposal. This is for sure. We must not exclude anything. “

A senior EU diplomat told Politico that when Trade Commissioner Maros Shefkovic did a poll for the tools that Brussels should use, few European ministers wanted to get all the options to enter the table, including Bazoukas.

Countries such as Ireland and Italy – whose sectors of pharmaceuticals and wine are in the eye of the duty storm – were more cautious about the escalation of commercial tensions with Trump.

Irish Foreign Minister and Trade Simon Harris has called for special attention to the invocation of the ACI or the targeting of US services.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tayyani has reached the point of demanding a delay in the entry into force of EU countermeasures for steel and aluminum -from April 15 to go on April 30.

Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, between European leaders closest to Trump, shows a doubt about a series of issues – from trade to defense – in which the block is trying to present a single front.

Melon is about to visit Washington next week, Corriera della Sera said.

There is no return

When you take out your strongest trading weapon at the table so early in the negotiating process, it is difficult to withdraw, if things do not evolve as you would like.

The European Commission will decide whether to impose a fine on Apple and Meta This week, to violate the EU digital competition rules. And this move could throw “oil on the fire” in the relationship between Washington and Brussels.

“At this stage, I would not want to go into accurate definitions or speculations about the kind of means we will use or our reasoning,” Maros Shefkovic told reporters on Monday.

“Our reaction is very gradual, in steel and aluminum … It is in some way ” stretched ” over time, because we want to create the necessary negotiating space. Until now, despite our efforts and our opening, we have not seen a real commitment, which would lead to a mutually acceptable solution, “the Commissioner of Commerce added.