Germany’s plant and equipment makers’ federation warned Wednesday the sector is facing an “existential crisis” after the United States broadened the reach of its metals tariffs.

In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the VDMA trade group warned the expanded levies “have now sent a fresh chill of uncertainty rippling through European industry”.

“The harm caused by them, along with the prospect of still more in the months to come, are sending key machinery sectors hurtling toward the precipice of an existential crisis,” wrote the group’s president Bertram Kawlath.

The European Union and US President Donald Trump struck a deal in late July under which EU exports to the United States face a 15-percent across-the-board tariff rate, though negotiations are not over

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