(April 5): European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel suggested that US President Donald Trump’s tariff onslaught may signify that the era of free-flowing global commerce is over.

Speaking on Saturday to a conference of business leaders in Cernobbio, on the banks of Lake Como in northern Italy, the policymaker began her remarks with a quip about the implications of the White House’s actions.

“‘Liberation day’ was not liberating, but seems to have marked the end of global free trade,” she said.

Schnabel, whose comments focused on reviving economic growth in the euro area, spoke just days before European Union trade ministers meet to discuss the tariffs unveiled on Wednesday by Trump, who previously derided the bloc as having been created “to screw the United States”.

“The EU was not born to screw the US, but it was born to make Europe thrive,” she said. “The best response to geopolitical shifts that we are experiencing is to make Europe stronger.”

In her remarks, Schnabel also said that inflation is projected to reach the ECB’s target of 2%, and that “as of today, we are on track towards a soft landing”.

Policymakers will enter a quiet period next Thursday before their April 17 decision. The outcome of that meeting hangs in the balance, with no clear signal from the ECB on whether a seventh interest-rate cut will be forthcoming.

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