EU prepared for any scenario after Trump threatens 25% car tariff

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday the European Union is "prepared for every scenario" after President Trump threatened to raise tariffs on EU cars and trucks from 15 to 25 percent, escalating a dispute over whether both sides are honoring a trade deal struck last year.

The standoff puts a year-old trade agreement at risk and raises the prospect that tariffs on European vehicles could reach the same 25 percent ceiling Trump imposed on cars from other trading partners. For Korean-American business owners and importers in Orange County who track global trade flows through Korean-language outlets like The Korea Times, the dispute signals a new wave of transatlantic uncertainty.

Trump on Friday threatened to raise tariffs on EU automobiles and trucks to 25 percent, accusing the bloc of failing to deliver on a deal negotiated last year that had capped U.S. tariffs at 15 percent on most European goods. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer made the administration's position explicit Monday. "The president decided that if the Europeans aren't implementing the deal right now, then we don't have to implement all of it either at this time," Greer said, according to The Korea Times.

Von der Leyen rejected that framing in remarks to reporters in Yerevan, Armenia. "A deal is a deal, and we have a deal. We are both implementing this deal while respecting the different democratic procedures we have on both sides," she said. In a separate statement, the commission chief said the EU is in "the final stages of implementing the remaining tariff commitments" and called on Washington to honor its own obligations, adding that the bloc is "prepared for every scenario."

The EU ratification path has been slow: the European Parliament gave conditional approval to the pact, but final negotiations with all 27 member states remain unfinished. Greer has previously complained the EU process moves too slowly and that proposed amendments would narrow the deal's scope.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged Brussels to deploy the EU's anti-coercion instrument — a trade tool the bloc has never before used — which would permit retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, restrictions on strategic European exports, and exclusion of American companies from EU public tenders. Macron said the EU had "equipped itself with instruments that would then have to be activated, because that is precisely what they are for," according to The Korea Times.

EU Trade Chief Maros Sefcovic was scheduled to meet in Paris on Tuesday with Greer in an effort to break the impasse. The outcome of those talks is expected to determine whether both sides step back from the brink or move toward a broader tariff confrontation.

The Paris meeting marks the most direct high-level contact between the two sides since Trump's threat, and its outcome is expected to set the tone for the next phase of U.S.-EU trade relations — with consequences that extend well beyond Europe's automotive industry.