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This article is an on-site version of our Europe Express newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday and Saturday morning. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood morning. French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with the Financial Times has described Donald Trump’s return to power as an “electroshock” for the EU and a moment “to accelerate and execute”, warning that otherwise the project is at risk of failure: “It has no choice. It is running out of road.”Last night, Donald Trump moved to impose long-threatened reciprocal trade measures on imports. Here, our trade correspondent explains what that means for Europe. And our Rome bureau chief reports on the European backlash to Giorgia Meloni’s satellite plans with Elon Musk.Gloves offFight or talk? That is the bleak option facing EU member states after US President Donald Trump escalated his trade war by pledging to levy tariffs for a number of ills such as selling cars Americans like to buy and taxing tech companies on the money they make in its market, writes Andy Bounds.Context: After slapping 25 per cent tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminium starting March 12, Trump yesterday instructed his trade advisers to draw up tariffs against countries that run a trade surplus in goods with the US, as the EU does, those that levy digital taxes, and those blocking US imports on health grounds.The expected but still startling broadside from the EU’s largest trade and investment partner came as European capitals were still reeling from Trump’s move 24 hours earlier to begin bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, cutting out Europe.Brussels has already said it would retaliate against the metals tariffs. There is a package of up to 50 per cent tariffs on €4.8bn worth of US goods ready to go. But officials told the FT that more products could increase to try to deter Trump. Most member states backed negotiations in a trade ministers’ meeting on Wednesday, according to two diplomats briefed on the meeting.Maroš Šefčovič, the EU trade commissioner, gave a sobering readout from his call with US commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, but still hopes to travel to Washington next week to meet him.“We have to respond — it’s better to negotiate from a position of strength,” said one EU diplomat.Ignacio García Bercero, until recently a senior EU trade official, said the bloc should co-ordinate with allies that were also threatened by Trump.“I think this needs to be treated very seriously. At the minimum all affected countries should prepare the launch of a WTO case as soon as tariffs are announced.”Chart du jour: Arms raceSome content could not load. Check your internet connection or browser settings.European arms companies have significantly increased their output in recent years, but decades of under-investment and long-term reliance on American hardware mean the continent’s capacity remains limited. The Italian JobItaly’s consideration of a $1.5bn, five-year military communication contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink has caused a furore in Europe, where critics warn that it could undermine the EU’s own satellite industry and leave Rome dependent on a mercurial tycoon, writes Amy Kazmin.Context: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said last month that her government had “no public alternative” to Musk’s SpaceX, as her government seeks to bolster secure military communications for its estimated 7,000 troops deployed overseas. Musk is one of US President Donald Trump’s closest advisers.However, Christophe Grudler, a French MEP from the liberal Renew who is also the co-chair of the European parliament’s Sky and Space Intergroup, has expressed dismay at Rome’s approach, as did several other lawmakers in a European parliament debate yesterday on the subject of “threats to EU sovereignty through strategic dependencies in communication infrastructure”. In a letter to European Commission president Ursula von den Leyen, Grudler argued that Italy should take advantage of GOVSATCOM, an EU initiative to pool existing secure European satellite capacity from countries such as Germany, France and Italy itself, and make it available to all member states. The programme is supposed to start functioning this year. In his letter, Grudler asked von den Leyen to confirm that “every effort” was being made to ensure that EU member states, especially Italy, could take full advantage of a service that he said should be “fully capable of meeting Italy’s immediate needs while ensuring security and strategic autonomy”. Separately, citing the Renaissance-era Florentine political strategist and diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli, Grudler warned of the risks of Italy “delegating its security to private actors”, insisting it should rely on trusted allies instead.“Elon Musk, a former Democrat supporter, has shown he can easily switch alliances in campaigns according to his business interests,” Grudler said.What to watch today Munich Security Conference begins, featuring dozens of world leaders and defence industry executives.US vice-president JD Vance meets Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Munich.European parliament president Roberta Metsola visits Palestine.Now read theseRecommended newsletters for you Free Lunch — Your guide to the global economic policy debate. Sign up hereThe State of Britain — Peter Foster’s guide to the UK’s economy, trade and investment in a changing world. Sign up hereAre you enjoying Europe Express? Sign up here to have it delivered straight to your inbox every workday at 7am CET and on Saturdays at noon CET. Do tell us what you think, we love to hear from you: [email protected]. Keep up with the latest European stories @FT Europe More
$99 for your first yearFT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday, plus FT Digital Edition delivered to your device Monday-Saturday.What’s included Weekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysis More
$99 for your first yearFT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday, plus FT Digital Edition delivered to your device Monday-Saturday.What’s included Weekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysis More
$99 for your first yearFT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday, plus FT Digital Edition delivered to your device Monday-Saturday.What’s included Weekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysis More
$99 for your first yearFT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday, plus FT Digital Edition delivered to your device Monday-Saturday.What’s included Weekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysis More
Video descriptionTranscriptDonald Trump gives a press conference on reciprocal tariffs for US trading partnersIt it’s a beautiful simple system, and we don’t have to worry about you we’re charging too much or too little, um, but traditionally India is right at the top of the pack pretty much there are a couple of smaller countries that are actually more, but India is a very, very, they, they charge tremendous tariffs. If you build here, you have no tariffs whatsoever and I think that’s what’s gonna happen. I think our country is gonna be flooded with. Jobs. Let’s see what happens. Nobody really knows what is going to happen other than. We know that jobs are going to be produced at levels that we haven’t seen before. We know that we think interest rates are gonna ultimately be coming down because of things that happen, and they go hand in hand with the tariffs, but we think that we think that the prices for some things, many things, it could be all things will go down, ultimately will go down. What’s the earliest date that you think tariffs will actually be implemented? Well, I would say maybe I’ll ask Howard to answer. Because he’s going to be the one that’s implementing. What do you think? Our studies should be all complete by April 1st, so we’ll hand the president the opportunity to start on April 2nd if he wants. So I think we’ll be ready to go on April 1st and we’ll hand it to the president and he’ll make his decisions. But remember, if they drop their tariffs, prices for Americans are coming down. You’ve talked about the VAT in the EU before and your concerns with how the EU treats you. Do you have a number in mind on the European Union? Do you have an idea of where that number is going to land? Well, what they are now is they have a 20% VAT tax, which we’re considering to be similar or the same as the tariff. Plus they charge lots of fees and you know they’re doing something else. The European Union’s been very tough on our companies. They sued Apple, they sued Google, they sued Facebook. They sued many other companies and the American companies and the kind of numbers are staggering. Canada’s gonna be a very interesting uh situation because, uh, you know, we just don’t need their product and yet they survive off the fact that we’re, you know, we do 95% of what they do and Canada is just absolutely I say it and sometimes people smile and sometimes they say great idea but. Uh, Canada, their taxes would come down greatly. The security would go up greatly. Amazing things happen to Canada and really Canada in this particular, why would we pay $200 billion a year in subsidies to Canada when they’re not a state? It’s the most beautiful, and I’ll tell you what I think really reciprocal tariffs, those two words, uh, reciprocal reciprocal makes tariffs really fair. This will eventually be the car companies and chip companies. We have to have chips made in this country right now everything’s made in Taiwan practically, almost all of it, a little bit in South Korea, but everything, almost all of it is made in Taiwan, and we want it to be made. We want those companies to come to our country in all due respect. when we straighten it all out, then I wanna have one of the first meetings I wanna have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. And I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that. If BRICS wants to play games, those countries won’t trade with us, we won’t trade with them, and if any trading gets through, it’ll be a 100% tariff at least. More
