EU calls US unreliable over Iran
- Donald Trump’s threat to raise EU auto tariffs to 25% pushed Bernd Lange, the European Parliament trade chair, to call the U.S. “unreliable.” - The number that made it land was 25% — above the 15% tariff framework both sides struck in Scotland last year. - It matters because Iran-war tensions and troop-cut threats are turning a trade fight into a wider trust crisis.
The immediate trigger here was trade, not Iran. On May 1, Donald Trump said he would raise tariffs on EU cars and trucks to 25%, arguing the bloc had not honored last year’s trade framework. That brought a very blunt response from Bernd Lange, who chairs the European Parliament’s trade committee: the U.S. now looks like an unreliable partner. But the reason this hit harder than a normal tariff spat is that Europe is already on edge over Washington’s handling of the Iran war, troop deployments, and alliance politics. Basically, one more shock landed on top of a trust problem that was already there. (politico.com) ### Why did this flare up now? Because Trump reopened a deal Europeans thought had at least stabilized the fight. The U.S. and EU had struck a framework in Scotland last year that left most EU goods facing a 15% import tariff instead of a bigger trade war. Trump’s new threat to move au(politico.com) is why Lange’s language was so sharp — not just “bad policy,” but “unreliable.” (msn.com) ### Why does Iran matter if this was about cars? Because Europeans are not reading these episodes one by one anymore. Since the U.S.-Iran war escalated in late February, European governments have been frustrated by how little influen(msn.com)t the war exposed how dependent Europe still is on U.S. choices in a region where Europe bears real economic and security spillovers. So when trade terms suddenly shift too, the pattern looks bigger than tariffs. (iiss.org) ### What made the security side worse? The Germany troop issue. On May 2, Berlin was dealing with news that the U.S. planned to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany. That came right after a public clash with Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the Iran war. Even if Eur(iiss.org)st, and sometimes for political reasons. (militarytimes.com) ### Is this just one politician talking? No — Lange gave the line, but the ground had already shifted. A February POLITICO poll found that in the allied countries it surveyed, more people called the U.S. an unreliable ally than a reliable one. (militarytimes.com)nreliable” label did not appear out of nowhere this week. (politico.com) ### Why are Europeans reacting so emotionally? Because reliability is the whole product in alliances. Europe can live with a hard bargain. It can even live with disagreements. The harder thing is not knowing whether a trade deal, a troop commitment, or a diplomatic channel will still exist next we(politico.com)ck reprices the whole relationship. The tariff threat was one more repricing event. (msn.com) ### Does this mean a break with Washington? Not a clean break. Europe is too tied into U.S. security, finance, and military infrastructure for that. But it does mean more pressure inside the EU to hedge — build defense capacity, dive(msn.com)ff fight have accelerated it. (carnegieendowment.org) ### What’s the bottom line? The phrase “unreliable partner” stuck because it connected two things Europeans increasingly see as one story — U.S. unpredictability on trade and U.S. unpredictability on war. Cars were the spark. Iran was the dry ground. (msn.com)hair/ar-AA22bBrB))
