Germany’s finance minister Lars Klingbeil warns that President Trump’s 30% tariffs on EU exports will only generate defeat for working people on both sides of the Atlantic, with the far-left movement urging bold responses to protect labor, sovereignty, and economic justice.

Related:

Germany Convenes Meeting to Toughen European Migration Policy

In a move that has rattled both European and American workers, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil declared that the recently announced 30% tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump “only leave losers.”

At a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Klingbeil stressed that both European manufacturers and American businesses would suffer, rejecting any notion that protectionism can produce winners among the working class or spur sustainable, fair development.

“Trump’s tariffs will hurt European industry and the American working class first and foremost. The working class are always the first to suffer in war, and a trade war is no different,” stressed Martin Schirdewan, co-chair of The Left in the European Parliament.

For Europe’s left, Trump’s tariffs are not only an economic threat,they are the expression of a broader attack by billionaire interests on the global working class, echoing the far-right shift in Washington.

Parliamentary leaders argue that the U.S. administration seeks to “turn the international order upside down and advances a policy in the interests of oligarchs and not citizens, which serves only billionaires.” The Trump administration’s erratic measures,notably lacking in nuanced, sectoral targeting,amount to an assault on working standards, climate progress, and basic international solidarity.

The EU’s current reliance on defensive counter-tariffs is sharply criticized by socialist voices, who argue for a more radical approach,calling on Brussels to ditch nostalgia for failed free trade orthodoxy and reject appeasement strategies. Instead, the left proposes ambitious policies such as:

-Progressive taxes on the wealthy and Big Tech.

-The strategic use of “anti-coercion instruments” to restrict government procurement by U.S.-linked conglomerates.

-The full reconsideration or exit from free trade agreements that undermine labor and climate standards.

“Rather than appeasing economic aggression, the EU should deploy every tool to protect social rights, climate, and industrial jobs. Trump’s tariffs mark the collapse of the free trade ideology. We must not respond with nostalgia, but with bold new strategies rooted in justice,” argues the European Left’s Economic Advisory Board.

German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil stated on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs pose at least as much threat to the American economy as they do to Europe’s.#news #forex #invest #economynews #economy pic.twitter.com/CaTZwc1Zw0

— WTRADERS (@WTRADERS_OFF) July 16, 2025

Independent analysis from far-left economic groups highlights that Trump’s blanket tariffs act as a hammer against working families. While some see tariffs as protection for domestic industries, this showdown, orchestrated for the interests of U.S. billionaires and opportunists, will in reality hike the cost of living for American workers and trigger job losses for Europeans, with profits channeled to the top.

The crisis sparked by these tariffs is not only a threat to Europe or the U.S.,it is a challenge to workers everywhere to resist the rise of the oligarchs and defend a future where economic policies serve the people, not the powerful fewAranceles de 30% a las exportaciones de la UE

IN THIS ARTICLE