German finance minister joins call for US-EU talks after Trump tariff threat

Lars Klingbeil says Europe needs ‘serious negotiations not further provocations’

Germany’s finance minister has joined a chorus of European politicians in calling for talks with the US after President Donald Trump threatened to impose 50% tariffs on imports from Europe starting next week.

Trump made the threat on Friday, saying “discussions [with the EU] are going nowhere”, adding that the tariffs would be applied from 1 June. Trump claimed he was “not looking for a deal”, repeating his longstanding view that European states hand “banded together to take advantage of us”.