EU to set off ‘agency and proportionate countermeasures’ towards US tariffs, von der Leyen says
European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen has simply responded to US tariffs on aluminium and metal introduced in a single day, saying the bloc will reply with “agency and proportionate countermeasures.”
Here’s what she stated:
I deeply remorse the US choice to impose tariffs on European metal and aluminium exports.
Tariffs are taxes – unhealthy for enterprise, worse for customers.
Unjustified tariffs on the EU won’t go unanswered – they may set off agency and proportionate countermeasures.
The EU will act to safeguard its financial pursuits. We’ll defend our employees, companies and customers.
Key occasions
Jakub Krupa
Now, a direct disclaimer on that recommendation I bought from chatbots.
New analysis discovered that main synthetic intelligence assistants create distortions, factual inaccuracies and deceptive content material in response to questions on information and present affairs.
Greater than half of the AI-generated solutions offered by ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity had been judged to have “important points”, based on the examine by the BBC.
So, be warned, don’t mechanically belief no matter you get from bots, and all the time double examine it with respected sources, in fact.
(Not solely certain if this presence of distortions, factual inaccuracies and deceptive content material would essentially be an issue when coping with Trump, although.)
Morning opening: The Artwork of the Deal
Jakub Krupa
US president Donald Trump has in a single day confirmed his plan to impose tariffs on all aluminium and metal imports from in all places on the earth, together with Europe.
Most metal used within the US comes from Mexico and Canada, with smaller numbers from Asia and Europe, with German producers frightened about oblique penalties if Chinese language or Indonesian metal will get diverted to Europe. Italy and Spain are involved, too.
However there’s additionally a transparent political query: how ought to the EU reply?
European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen and French president Emmanuel Macron will meet with US vice-president JD Vance right now, on the sidelines of the AI Motion Summit in Paris. It will likely be their first formal assembly because the inauguration of the brand new US administration final month.
Holding with the theme, I’ve requested numerous AI fashions to tackle the position of a European chief and supply strategies on how to reply to Trump’s more and more assertive commerce coverage.
It seems that fashions do appear to replicate the best way policymaking is now being accomplished in respective geographies.
French Mistral AI’s Le Chat has supplied me a somewhat bland “European Fee officers on a working journey to Brugge” kind of response (additionally making me consider the “let’s eliminate computer systems” scene from the good British TV sequence the Thick of It).
It instructed me – and I swear to God, that is verbatim from its solutions – to “current a unified entrance”, “present solidarity with the member states,” and have interaction in “high-level dialogue,” earlier than contemplating “focused retaliatory measures” and submitting a grievance to the World Commerce Group. Oh, and to “spend money on innovation” to “improve the competitiveness of European industries.”
So good, it may very well be leaked from an EU official’s inbox, and we might not know.
Once I requested for unorthodox options, it instructed me to organise a “flashmob” (are they even nonetheless a factor in 2025?), document “viral movies,” and purchase a billboard in a US metropolis to “increase consciousness” concerning the influence of tariffs. Yeah, good luck with that.
American OpenAI’s ChatGPT struck was notably (method) extra bullish, directing me to “play the Artwork of the Deal towards Trump” and persuade him we are able to get “a giant, stunning deal,” probably even named after him, and declare it’s “the most effective in historical past,” whereas truly getting no matter we would like for Europe.
“As a substitute of reacting defensively, we must always go on the offensive,” it stated, including that we must also retaliate with expansive tariffs however droop their utility to “go away uncertainty hanging over US companies” and basically scare Trump into submission.
It then instructed me to “publicly reward his good negotiating expertise whereas quietly working round him,” and “use exaggerated flattery to make him suppose eradicating tariffs was his thought all alongside” by forcing him to “meet his erratic behaviour with managed unpredictability of our personal.”
“He could not play by the foundations, however that doesn’t imply we are able to’t beat him at his personal recreation,” it concluded.
Somebody higher ship that to Ursula and Emmanuel earlier than they meet with Vance for a Parisian lunch.
It’s Tuesday, 11 February 2025, and that is Europe stay. It’s Jakub Krupa right here.
Good morning.
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