US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is recommending a 50% tariff about European Union products from June 1, stating that commercial negotiation has been difficult.
Escalona the trade war with the block just two weeks after the US agreed to China to reduce tariffs in a pact that comforted global investors.
If it is confirmed, the 50% rate would be more than double the rate the US President announced to the EU on his self -proclaimed Liberation Day on April 2.
“The European Union, which was formed with the main purpose of taking advantage of the United States in commerce, has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Our discussions with them are not taking anywhere!”
The US president also attacked the bloc for “commercial barriers, taxes, ridiculous corporate penalties, commercial barriers, monetary manipulations, unjust and unjustified processes against American companies.”
In response, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Trump’s threat to the ‘doesn’t help anyone’, and that Berlin would continue to support the EU in negotiations with Washington.
“The European Commission has our full support to maintain access to the US market, and I believe such tariffs do not help anyone. They would only cause economic development in both markets to suffer,” said Wadephul.
The US commercial representative, Jamieson Greer, should talk to the EU Commerce Commissioner, Maro šefčovič, later this Friday. At the Financial Times the European Commission said it would not comment on Trump’s statements before the conversation.
The stock markets had recovered from the April fall, helped by movements such as Trump’s retreat, but were shaken by the president’s latest commercial offensive.
After the publication, the Wall Street rates fell on Friday, with the Dow Jones index falling 0.94%, S&P 500 retreating 1.18%, and Nasdaq composite down 1.53%.
The president’s movement “questions the view that the markets will contain Trump,” said Andrew Pease, chief investment strategist at Russell Investments.
The US implemented a 20% reciprocal rate on most EU products in April, but reduced it by half July 8 to allow time for negotiations. They have maintained 25% levels on steel, aluminum and car parts and are promising similar action in pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and other goods.
The block must now choose between retaliation or give in to US requirements to make concessions.
Member States approved a 21 billion euros package of up to 50% tariffs on items such as corn, wheat, motorcycles, and worthy clothes that are currently not being in force by July 14, but could be quickly implemented.
The European Commission is still consulting a larger list of 95 billion euros (R $ 614 billion) of possible measures, which includes Boeing aircraft, cars and bourbon whiskey.
American authorities have been frustrated by the European Union’s failure to offer concessions that other countries have done, with Howard Lutnick, US secretary, saying on Thursday that Brussels was “impossible” to negotiate.
Washington wants Brussels to reduce barriers to imports to reduce the size of the US commercial deficit in goods with the block, which totaled $ 192 billion in 2024.
The Trump administration considers the current tariff level of food and products from the EU protectionists and wants the block to unilaterally eliminate tariffs. The EU proposed that both sides eliminate rates on all industrial products and some agricultural.
Brussels also offered to help fight Chinese overcapacity in sectors such as steel and cars, and to discuss restrictions on Beijing’s technology export.
But he refused to discuss the elimination of national digital taxes or VAT (Value Added Tax), main demands from the US, or the weakening of EU regulation on American technology companies.
Also on Friday, the Republican president threatened Apple with a 25% iPhones rate unless the company produces the US smartphone. It is a new chapter of the impasse with Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook.
Cook said this month that Indian factories would provide the “majority” of iPhones sold in the US in the coming months, while Apple tries to avoid tariff rates in China imposed by Trump as part of his trade war.
“Apple’s Tim Cook for a long time, which I hope its iPhones that will be sold in the United States will be manufactured and built in the United States, not in India or anywhere else,” the US president wrote in a social truth.
Trump’s publications on Friday contrast with their administration’s movements to reduce commercial tensions. The US recently closed a trade agreement with the UK and a truce with China.
But negotiations with other countries have since slowly advanced, and Trump officials have recently signaled that they would adopt a harder approach, warning that countries that were not negotiating in “good faith” would again face maximum tariffs.
