German Vice Chancellor says EU ready to impose retaliatory duties against the US

The European Union (EU) is ready to impose retaliatory duties against the United States in response to the tariffs on EU goods imposed by US President Donald Trump. This was announced on February 2 by German Vice Chancellor and Minister of State Economy from the Green Party Robert Habeck during a speech at an event organized by the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper.

"As Europeans, we are ready for retaliatory duties. Americans should know - this is a very bad alternative," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

He added that the EU will not allow itself to be "roughed up" in case retaliatory duties fail. According to Habeck, the German economy is the weakest in Europe.

How high is the threat of a trade war between the US, EU and China. Parsing

Earlier, on February 1, Trump signed an executive order imposing trade tariffs of 25% on goods from Canada, China and Mexico. Then he also promised to impose duties on goods from the EU.

Later it was reported that the EU would respond harshly if the US imposes duties on goods from the countries of the association. Low duties contribute to economic stability and the EU will be ready to respond harshly in case of their unfair increase.

At the same time, Chinese economist Andrew Leung told Izvestia that the tariffs imposed by Trump on imports of goods from China and Mexico would lead to an increase in consumer prices in the US itself.