KEY POINTS
- Trump says tariffs on European Union imports will be set at 25%
- Trump signals duties on Canada and Mexico to take effect from April 2.
- The US President claims the EU was created to counter the US and has taken advantage of American trade policies.
- The tariffs will impact key industries, including automobiles and pharmaceuticals.
- Trump vows to impose tariffs matching those levied by other countries on US exports.
- The EU plans to expand retaliatory tariffs if the US imposes duties.
- EU is willing to negotiate tariff reductions with the US.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump hit markets with fresh tariff headlines on Wednesday as he said that tariffs on European Union products would be 25 percent in general, and signalled that duties on Canada and Mexico will take effect in early April.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Trump described the EU — whose creation was encouraged for decades by Washington — as rooted in an attempt to counter the United States.
“Look, let’s be honest, the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States,” Trump said.
“They’ve really taken advantage of us in a different way,” Trump told reporters as he convened his first Cabinet meeting since assuming office in January.
“They don’t accept our cars. They don’t accept, essentially, our farm products. They use all sorts of reasons why not, and we accept everything of them, and we have about a $300 billion deficit with the European Union. Now I love the countries of Europe. I guess I’m from there at some point, a long time ago, but indirectly, well, pretty directly too, I guess.”
Asked if he had made a decision on tariff levels for the bloc, Trump added: “We’ll be announcing it very soon and it’ll be 25 percent, generally speaking.”
He said this would hit products including cars, adding that the EU has “really taken advantage of us.”
Trump has threatened “reciprocal tariffs” on US trading partners to counter “unfair and unbalanced” trade.
He has also said he would impose sweeping levies on imports of certain products, such as autos and pharmaceuticals.
Since taking office in January, Trump has announced and paused blanket tariffs on US neighbours Canada and Mexico over illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling.
Asked about the halt, Trump said he was not stopping the tariffs, adding that he planned for levies to take effect on April 2.
“The tariffs go on, not all of them, but a lot of them,” he said.
The European Union is also broadening the list of US goods it will target with retaliatory tariffs if Trump follows through on his threat to impose duties on steel and aluminium exports.
Earlier on February 20, the European Union’s commissioner for trade and economic security, Maros Sefcovic, said the bloc was interested in making mutually beneficial trade deals with Trump and was ready to discuss the potential for reducing or eliminating tariffs on motor vehicles and other goods.
Maros Sefcovic told an American Enterprise Institute event in Washington that he would tell Trump administration trade officials that he hoped to avoid unilateral US tariffs and European retaliation.
The 27-member EU could be hit especially hard by Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff plan announced to raise US import tariff rates to match those charged by other countries.
The EU has a 10 percent tariff on passenger cars, four times the rate of the US passenger car tariff of 2.5 percent and US officials have complained about European value added taxes of at least 17.5 percent.
