Home › Archive › In the Media › ČT24 | Europe offers zero tariffs, Trump wants billions in energy purchasesČT24 | Europe offers zero tariffs, Trump wants billions in energy purchases
Donald Trump is conditioning the reduction of tariffs on European goods on the expansion of US energy imports into Europe. The European Union, meanwhile, is coming up with proposals to introduce reciprocal zero tariffs, for example on industrial products or cars. Martin Vokálek, executive director of the EUROPEUM Institute, commented on the situation for ČT24.
8. April 2025
The process is very fast and evolving by the hour. Following the extremely high tariffs introduced by Donald Trump - in my opinion, based on a stupid and simple calculation that does not correspond to reality - we find ourselves in a situation where individual countries, including the European Union, are beginning to react to these tariffs. First of all, the EU is using a ‘carrot and stick’ strategy. That sugar was the proposal to eliminate tariffs between the US and Europe on industrial products altogether. However, Donald Trump has made it known that this is not enough to reduce the tariffs against the EU. He wants to compensate for this by buying energy, and he has spoken of a sum of up to EUR 380 billion, which is a very large sum indeed. The United States is pushing from a position of strength and we will see how the European Union reacts, which, in addition to the aforementioned ‘carrot’, also has a ‘stick’ in reserve.
Listen to the full interview here.
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