“The EU trade commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, said the EU “did everything to avoid this outcome.” Noting her discussions with U.S. officials, she said. “I have argued for the EU and the US to engage in a positive trans-Atlantic trade agenda, and for the EU to be fully, permanently and unconditionally exempted from these tariffs.””
Translation: We need to continue to be able to screw the United States without any interference.
The EU had a chance in 2016 to fix up TTIP talks and that basically went nowhere. None of the 28 members of the EU have the authority to go out on their own, and write their own US-individual treaties.
I’ll predict that by August, they quietly agree to go back to the TTIP table and write up a replacement trade situation. At best, they can mount this anti-Trump tirade for about a hundred days before the public tells them to shut and negotiate.