EU scrambles to respond to US tariff threat as Trump promises ‘major statement’ on Russia – Europe live

EU ministers are meeting this morning for urgent talks after the US president, Donald Trump, threatened to impose 30% tariffs on the bloc – despite what they believed were promising talks with the US administration on how to avoid them.

But in a letter issued over the weekend, Trump said:

• "We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies, and Trade Barriers …
• Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”