President Donald Trump on Friday threatened the European Union with a sweeping 50% tariff, posting that commerce talks with the bloc are “going nowhere.”
In a put up on his Fact Social platform, Trump wrote that he was “recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, beginning on June 1, 2025.”
The put up got here simply minutes after Trump additionally threatened Apple with a 25% tariff if it doesn’t begin producing iPhones in the USA.
The early morning posts risked reignited the commerce struggle Trump began in April however that had cooled in current weeks. The Trump administration had been talking in a typically optimistic method about ongoing commerce talks, and the president backed down from some of the most severe tariffs, sparking a comeback for U.S. and global markets.
That comeback seemed poised for a reversal after Trump’s posts, wit hstock indexes in Germany and France dropping practically 3%. The Stoxx 600, which tracks tons of of shares throughout Europe, plunged greater than 2%. Shares in the UK dropped greater than 1%, although it’s not a member of the E.U. Dow futures slid greater than 500 factors and S&P futures dropped 1.5%.
Trump has repeatedly assailed the European Union, calling it “in some ways, nastier than China.” On tariff charges and what the U.S. calls “non-tariff limitations,” Trump stated, “oh, they’re going to come down so much. You watch.” However the bloc has refused to change its value-added tax, a frequent level of competition for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and different U.S. officers.
The 27-nation bloc is America’s second-biggest buying and selling associate behind China. The U.S. exported greater than $350 billion of products to the E.U. lately, and imported $550 billion value of products.
Maros Šefčovič, the European Fee’s commerce chief, and U.S. Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer are set to talk over the cellphone Friday morning, simply hours after Trump’s put up.
The E.U. has been making ready for months for the chance that commerce talks with the U.S. would fail. In early Could, Šefčovič stated the bloc most well-liked negotiations, “however not at any value. We due to this fact proceed to organize for each state of affairs.” The next day, the E.U. announced greater than $100 billion value of doable retaliatory tariffs on U.S. items.
