Europe reacts to new tariffs announcement and more uncertainty

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+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop The Best Music of 2025 All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Europe reacts to new tariffs announcement and more uncertainty President Trump announced a 15% increase on tariffs across the board.

+ World Europe reacts to new tariffs announcement and more uncertainty February 21, 20265:16 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Eleanor Beardsley , Emily Kwong Europe reacts to new tariffs announcement and more uncertainty Listen &middot; 3:49 3:49 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5721239/nx-s1-9658447" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript President Trump announced a 15% increase on tariffs across the board. Europeans have been celebrating yesterday's SCOTUS decision, but have been doing so quietly. Sponsor Message EMILY KWONG, HOST: Today, President Trump announced on Truth Social that he will raise his new global tariff to 15%. That is up from the 10% he imposed yesterday after the Supreme Court struck down his previous tariffs. While Europeans had been quietly hailing the Supreme Court's decision, they are now whipsawed by President Trump's announcement of new tariffs, leaving a lot at stake. So let's go now to NPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Paris to hear more. Hi, Eleanor.

+ ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Hello, Emily. KWONG: What has the reaction been in Europe to this tariff news? And what has the official reaction been? BEARDSLEY: Well, it's been huge news all over the TVs and in the newspapers, but leaders are treading carefully. First off, the Supreme Court decision is an internal U.S. matter, and also, President Trump is seen as increasingly unpredictable and even erratic by Europeans, and no one wants to provoke him. They were shocked how he personally attacked the Supreme Court judges. And quite frankly, a lot of Europeans, after his Davos speech, were stunned. They had not heard him go - you know, ramble like that, and he went off on so many tangents, like, the U.S. 2020 election was stolen - and it wasn't stolen - and that was six years ago, so people were shocked. Now they're whipsawed. You know, the tariffs were struck down yesterday. Now there are new tariffs. It's hard to know how to react. And today, President Emmanuel Macron opened a big agriculture show in Paris, and he said, let's not celebrate too soon. And he said, we'll just have to adapt and look - you know, look at the consequences and adapt. The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also spoke today. He's going to Washington in early March to meet with President Trump. Here he is talking to public broadcaster ARD. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) FRIEDRICH MERZ: (Speaking German). BEARDSLEY: He said he would meet President Trump with a unified, coordinated European position. And he described the Supreme Court's decision as showing that the Trump administration had been set limits on tariff policy. And he called that reassuring and that it showed, quote, "the separation of powers in the United States still appears to function, and that is good news." KWONG: How have the tariffs so far affected business in Europe? BEARDSLEY: Hugely, and it's just the beginning. You know, the EU and the U.S. did more than 1 1/2 trillion dollars in trade in goods and services in 2024. They're each each other's largest trading partners. KWONG: Yeah. BEARDSLEY: So there's a lot at stake. Last summer before the tariffs were put into effect, the 15%, I went into Burgundy, and I spoke with winegrowers, and they were so nervous about what would happen. And one of the vineyards I visited was Michael Shaps' vineyard. He has - he's a French winemaker and a Virginia winemaker who exports and imports in both directions, so he really sees how it's affecting the whole thing. I spoke with him today. Here he is. MICHAEL SHAPS: It's been crazy - the up and downs on both sides of the Atlantic. On top of that, the fact that the dollar has tumbled about 12% in the past year. So you add that on top of the tariffs, and it's a big hit. BEARDSLEY: Yeah, so he hailed the Supreme Court's decision, but it didn't last long. And he said most French winemakers, including himself, are finding and have found new markets across Europe and Asia. He says it's just too hard to do business with the U.S. KWONG: Does the EU have any recourse to fight back? BEARDSLEY: Yeah, they do. I mean, the U.S. and the EU negotiated a trade deal last summer, but it's actually not been ratified by the European Parliament. And they could hold that back, and there are now calls for them to do so. And they've already identified $93 billion worth of U.S. goods that they could slap tariffs on, and there's something else they could use. It's a mechanism that's been referred to as the trade bazooka, which could enact huge restrictions on U.S. companies having access to the EU market, which is a market of 450 million consumers. It's massive and lucrative, so that could be a real threat. KWONG: That's NPR's Paris correspondent Eleanor Beardsley. Thank you so much for your reporting. BEARDSLEY: You're welcome. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. 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