President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs are already causing global economic turmoil, but Europe’s top climate and competition official said the continent won’t change its plans to decarbonize its economy.
“These tariffs are bad for everything, but this does not mean that we are going to change the course of our decisions or our targets,” Teresa Ribera, executive vice president of the European Commission for a clean, just and competitive transition, told reporters in Washington on Thursday.
The European Union is being hit with a 20 percent levy. It is also facing duties of 25 percent on steel and aluminum and 25 percent on automobiles. The bloc has been one of America’s closest allies and a crucial trading partner, but in his Rose Garden announcement Wednesday, Trump said the E.U. “rips us off.”
Ribera said the expansiveness of Trump’s tariffs was unexpected but wouldn’t cause Europe to change course. Conversely, for a bloc that relies on imports of oil and gas to meet its energy demands, “the capacity to deploy energy solutions that do not rely on external supply are more important than ever,” she said.
