Trump to impose 25% tariffs on EU, which was "created to annoy" the United States
The announcement comes after Europe showed its willingness to make concessions to avoid trade tariffs
WashingtonUS President Donald Trump has said that "25% tariffs" will be applied to the European Union in "general terms." "The European Union was created to annoy the United States, that is its purpose," he said during the first presidential cabinet meeting, which was held on Wednesday. The announcement comes after Europe showed its willingness to lower tariffs on American vehicles and make concessions to Trump's demands in its reciprocal tariff policy.
Last week, EU Trade and Economic Security Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, He asked his American counterparts to stop the counter until April 2. (when reciprocal tariffs are supposed to come into effect) to allow time for negotiations and "avoid pain." Sefcovic traveled to Washington to address the issue.
The automotive sector could be one of the hardest hit by the reciprocal tariff policy that Trump announced last week. While the United States applies a 2.5% tariff to imports of European sedans and SUVs, the EU taxes vehicles imported from the US at 10%.
The US president's memorandum ordered a response to all tariffs on American products, including "unfair, discriminatory or extraterritorial" taxes - a category which includes the European VAT - as well as costs on American businesses, workers and consumers that operate on a market value basis. The US president has set his sights on VAT and wants to add it to his tariff calculations, which would mean that the rates on European vehicles would go from 2.5% to 30%.
Before the meeting between the European commissioner and his American counterparts, Trump had already announced from his Mar-a-Lago mansion that the tariffs on cars would be 25%. A figure that would also apply to pharmaceutical companies and semiconductors (materials with electrical conductivity) and which he threatened to increase "very considerably throughout the year".
Canada and Mexico
On the other hand, the president's comments on the Mexican and Canadian tariffs had given hope for a new postponement, as he had initially postponed them for only a month (until March) and now he has said that they would go into effect on April 2. The confusion has come from a comment he made about the date of application of the 25% trade tariffs: "I wanted to have them go into effect on April 1, but I'm a little superstitious and I changed it to April 2. Then they will go into effect, not all of them, but many of them will. And you will see how incredible it will be."
Later, however, a White House official has dispelled doubts by saying that the deadline for Mexico and Canada remains at March 4, according to Reuters. It is expected that from then on the Trump administration will evaluate whether they have kept their word to improve the situation at the border. In fact, this is what Trump also said at the meeting, in which he assured that if the number of border crossings has not decreased and the arrival of fentanyl will not stop the tariffs.
