Daily SumUp

U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on the EU should be the start of a “march to independence” for the continent, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Monday.

In an interview with France Inter days before the U.S. president’s 25 percent tariff on automobile imports and broader “reciprocal” tariffs are due to enter force, Lagarde said the moment represented a unique opportunity for Europe, and that it should not “lie down” in front of the U.S. onslaught.

“I consider it a moment when we can decide together to take our destiny into our own hands, and I think it is a march to independence,” she argued, adding that this applied to the fields of finance and information technology as much as to defense and energy.