Europe races to confront America’s trade war

THE COUNTRIES of the European Union are divided over defence, economic policy, trade, China and much else. This does not make it easy to agree on tactics in the face of an American president who appears to be willing to use any lever of American power to get his way. On January 31st Donald Trump said he would “absolutely” impose tariffs on the EU, complaining that “They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, essentially, they don’t take almost anything.” He followed that up, on February 2nd, by calling the EU’s actions on trade “an atrocity”. On the market opening the following morning, the euro lost 1% against the dollar. European stocks fell by more.