"We stand ready to negotiate with the United States. Indeed, we have offered zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods, as we have successfully done with many other trading partners, because Europe is always ready for a good deal," von der Leyen said on Monday.
This comes as the 27-nation bloc has been in talks to get the US to lower tariffs against the EU. The countries are facing a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports to the United States that go towards making cars as well as reciprocal tariffs imposed by Trump on various countries. The US president has also implemented a widespread 10 percent tariff on nearly all imports to the US.
"We need to remain calm and respond in a way that de-escalates. The stock markets right now show what will happen if we escalate straightaway. But we will be prepared to take countermeasures if needed to get the Americans at the table," Dutch Trade Minister Reinette Klever said on Monday, according to Reuters.
The meet-up took place in Luxembourg on Monday, where they discussed how Europe should react to the tariffs from the United States. Trump has previously said that the best way to get the tariffs from the US removed on the nations is for the EU countries to drop their own tariffs and trade barriers to the US, but some of the leaders are still floating ideas about retaliating to the US tariffs with more trade barriers.
French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said that everything should be on the table to retaliate to the tariffs, "We cannot exclude any options on goods or services and, however we approach it, open the box to the European tool which is very comprehensive and which can be extremely aggressive."
Other leaders were wanting to be cautious in how they dealt with the US.
