Trump blinks on tariffs. Can Europe exhale?

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4 • 175 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A tariff storm was brewing — and then, just like that, the forecast changed. Donald Trump shocked everyone by pausing his planned tariffs for 90 days (for all countries except China), throwing global markets a lifeline and leaving the EU wondering what game he’s playing. In this episode of EU Confidential, host Sarah Wheaton unpacks the fallout from Trump’s trade U-turn with Josh Lipsky, senior director at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, and Doug Busvine, POLITICO’s editor for agriculture and trade. They dig into whether this is a moment of de-escalation in Trump’s trade war — or just the eye of the storm — as well as how Brussels might respond, and what it all means for the future of globalization and free trade. As always, the situation is fluid. All information and figures were accurate at the time of recording. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's episode is presented by Equinoor.
0:03.0	From Norway, Equinore has more than gas in the pipeline.
0:07.0	Reliable supplies of gas for Europe today without losing sight of the energy systems of tomorrow,
0:14.0	building innovative offshore wind farms, enabling safe CO2 storage,
0:20.0	while exploring how hydrogen can help reduce the emissions of European
0:24.2	industry because when it comes to energy solutions we're always searching for better
0:29.9	Equinoa just as we were wrapping our heads around the idea of a prolonged trade war,
0:40.8	embracing in Europe for price hikes on everything from Levi's jeans and Harley Davidson's to tofu and cigarettes,
0:48.3	everything changed again.
0:52.5	The EU was getting ready to retaliate against Donald Trump's shocking tariffs when
0:57.1	late Wednesday, the American president decided to hit the pause button and start negotiating.
1:05.2	The deal's going to be made with every one of them, and there'll be fair deals. I just want fair.
1:09.4	They will be fair deals for everybody.
1:12.5	Talk about timing. We had a whole episode ready for you. Now it's going to be shelved forever.
1:20.2	Because when Trump suddenly called for a 90-day pause on the majority of his most aggressive
1:25.1	tariffs, it created a whole new scramble.
1:28.9	There was some relief, but it's already curdling into a new realization that the trade war
1:35.0	is still very much on.
1:41.1	The EU will be spared, for now, of across-the-board tariffs of 20%.
1:47.8	But Trump is still slapping the whole world with 10% duties on all imports, and his 125%
1:54.3	tariff against Chinese goods will create a tsunami of changes to global supply chains.
2:03.8	So what does this unexpected shift mean?
	...

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