Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 9, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Friedrich Merz credits EU unity for Trump's tariff pause and advocates for tariff-free US-EU trade, following his coalition deal with the Social Democrats.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Friedrich Merz, Germany's likely next chancellor, said U.S. President Donald Trump's pause of tariffs for 90 days was evidence of a united European approach to trade having a positive effect, and called for tariff-free U.S.-EU trade.
"Europeans are determined to defend ourselves and this example shows that unity helps most of all," he told TV show RTL Direkt in an interview following his conservative bloc's sealing of a coalition deal with the Social Democrats.
"Let's all set tariffs of 0% on transatlantic trade, and then the problem will be solved," he added.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, writing by Thomas Escritt)
The main topic is the impact of EU unity on Trump's decision to pause tariffs and the call for tariff-free US-EU trade.
Merz stated that EU unity was crucial in influencing Trump's decision to pause tariffs, showing its positive effect.
Merz proposes setting tariffs at 0% on transatlantic trade to resolve trade issues between the US and EU.
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