U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Washington may impose a 50% tariff on all goods imported from the European Union starting June 1. He shared this information on his social media platform Truth, highlighting the escalating trade conflict between the U.S. and the European Union.
This is reported by Київ24
Justification of Intentions and Reaction from the European Union
Trump explained that “their powerful trade barriers, increased value-added tax rates, fines for corporations, unfair trade restrictions, monetary manipulations, and unlawful lawsuits against American companies” have resulted in a significant trade deficit for the U.S. exceeding $250 billion. He added that “our negotiations with them lead nowhere.” He noted that the proposed tariff would not apply to goods produced in the U.S. with European components.
“Their powerful trade barriers, VAT, ridiculous fines for corporations, non-monetary trade restrictions, monetary manipulations, unfair and baseless lawsuits against American companies, and much more have led to a trade balance deficit with the U.S. of over 250,000,000, which is absolutely unacceptable. Our negotiations with them lead nowhere.”
These decisions by Trump were announced just hours before a phone conversation between European Commission trade representatives Maroš Šefčovič and U.S. Trade Representative James Greer. Meanwhile, just a few days after the European Union’s proposal for mutual concessions in trade, the U.S. side received information about the potential rejection of these proposals by Greer in terms of unilateral actions.
Reaction and Prospects of the Trade Conflict
So far, the European Union has not officially responded to Trump’s statements. At the same time, it is known that on April 2, the U.S. president announced the imposition of tariffs on goods from around the world, anticipating a base rate of 10% for all imported goods, and 20% for European Union countries. This became part of a broader trade tariff policy that began earlier when Trump signed orders imposing 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports starting March 12.