Trump vows 25% tariffs against EU, which was 'formed to screw US'
Photo: Donald Trump, President of the United States (Getty Images)
Donald Trump has threatened to slap 25% tariffs on the European Union claiming the 27-country bloc was “formed to screw the US”, according to The Guardian.
Speaking at his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the US president said he would soon release details of the latest tariff threat.
“We have made a decision and we’ll be announcing it very soon. It’ll be 25%,” Trump said.
Trump did not give further details but mentioned carmakers and said the levies would be applied generally.
“And that’ll be on cars and all other things,” he said.
The bloc is the US’s third largest trading partner alongside China.
Trump has said he will impose 25% tariffs on the US’s two largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, next week.
Trump has made a series of announcements about imposing tariffs on the US’s largest trading partners but has repeatedly delayed imposing the levies on Canada and Mexico.
EU reaction
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, met with Trump in Washington this week and appeared confident that he had talked Trump out of a trade dispute with the EU and to concentrate instead on his dealings with China.
The French president also made it clear to Trump that Europe will not be able to increase defense spending, as the US demands, in the event of a trade war.
Additionally, the EU pledges to respond if Trump initiates a trade war. For several months, the EU has been working on a set of potential countermeasures in case Trump imposes tariffs, though the details of the list have been closely guarded. Following this, an EU representative stated that the bloc would respond firmly if Trump enforces tariffs.
The head of the EU’s foreign policy department, Kaja Kallas, suggested that a trade war between the US and Europe would ultimately benefit China.
