US President Donald Trump threatened to increase tariffs to 50% on imports from the European Union next month, amid ongoing trade talks between the US and the bloc.
“Our discussions with [the EU] are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning.
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
In the same post, Trump cited trade barriers such as value-added taxes (VAT), “ridiculous” corporate penalties, non-monetary trade barriers, monetary manipulations, and lawsuits against American companies as justification for the proposed tariff increase.
Trump previously proposed a 20% tariff on EU goods before decreasing it to 10% until July 8 to allow for trade negotiations, according to the BBC.
Taken as a bloc, the EU is the US’s largest trading partner, with trade between the countries valued at $975.9 billion in 2024, according to data from the President’s Office of the United States Trade Representative.
Last year, the US exported $370.2 billion to the EU and imported $605.8 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $235.6 billion.
A trade deficit is neither inherently good nor bad, but occurs when the value of a country’s imports, including both goods and services, exceeds its exports, according to Investopedia.
While trade deficits are frequently attacked by Trump for leading to job loss and foreign dependence, a trade deficit also allows domestic consumers to afford more cheap imported goods and can increase foreign investment in a country.
Other Topics of Interest
Ukraine Deploys Record Numbers of Drones Against Russian Arms Factories, Airports
Besides hitting missile production and energy facilities Kyiv’s unmanned aircraft have killed mobile internet for dozens of Russian cities and towns and stranded tens of thousands of air travelers.
US markets slid in response to Friday’s statement, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average opening 480 points lower than the previous day, according to CNN.
This is the latest development in Trump’s global tariff war, which began in earnest on April 2 in what the US president called “Liberation Day” with the White House’s announcement of issuing sweeping tariffs on most countries around the world. The minimum tariff announced was 10% – which applied to Ukraine – while China was hit with 67% and the European Union with 20%.
Russia was conspicuously absent from the list of countries receiving tariff hikes, although global trade between the US and Russia has plummeted due to sanctions over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump’s tariffs have roiled global markets, and although the White House has failed to share details about the majority of the economic negotiations that officials claim are going on behind closed doors, a few new bilateral trade deals have been made public.
The US and UK signed a trade deal on April 9, and on May 12, the US reached a 90-day truce with China after days of threats to increase the rate.
Investor sentiment improved upon the news of a trade truce with China, but Friday’s announcement of an impasse in negotiations with the EU had already sent markets again into unstable waters.