Trump Threatens EU With a 50% Tariff Starting June 1
“Our discussions with them are going nowhere!”
President Donald Trump threatened the European Union with a 50% tariff due to stalled negotiations:
The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable. Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer meets with his European counterpart later Friday morning.
Last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the bloc offered Trump a deal concerning tariffs on industrial goods.
German Finance Minister Jörg Kukies called for zero tariffs on imports: “The easiest way to assure balance and fairness is if everyone goes to zero and then we have free trade, efficiency, and economies of scale. The key is to send the signal that we are willing to include reducing tariffs all the way to zero.”
Julian Hinz of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy agreed with Kukies. From DW:
“Dropping tariffs bilaterally between the US and the EU most definitely would be the best outcome. Having cheaper trade between those two economies would benefit both of them, whereas the flip side, if we have tariffs, 20% on each side, that increases costs for both sides. Import tariffs are an import tax that can be lowered very quickly, very easily.”
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Comments
EU…more like PU. Something stinks in Amsterdam, and I doubt it is a fish market nor a “coffee” shop.
Brussels…not Amsterdam 😉
Wasn’t the last “offer” from the EU “lets drop tariffs on just these categories” – which were the ones where the EU sold to the US and nothing the other direction?
Mere coincidence, surely.
The EU and China are watching our media carry the water against tariffs for them and so will just wait and maybe negotiate around the edges.
You are right, and the ones that blindly swallow the bait will end up in a virtual wet market located at 10.10.45.250.5
The trade deficit number cited is likely incorrect, as “$250,000,000” is only two hundred fifty million. Even that is not inconsequential, but it seems RELATIVELY small.
I’m sure the American consumers can’t wait for the higher prices these tariffs will bring. Tariffs are effectively a national sales tax levied against imported goods that the American consumer will have to pay if they buy those goods. Trade deals typically take years, not days or months, to negotiate.
then don’t buy those goods!! there are probably many US based manufacturer that make the same things.
What particular EU exports to the USA are you most concerned about?
For the everyday consumer, all I can think of is automobiles, a few bits of clothing virtually no common person can afford, and a handful of cameras still made in Germany. Oh, and don’t forget snob-appeal wristwatches that cost tens of thousands and keep time almost as well as a $49.95 Casio.
As for, say, the medical and research companies, lab equipment and scanners from Germany (think Siemens and Leica), and I believe there are some very good machine tools made in various countries there.
I added an upvote to keep you from being lonely, even though I disagree with you.
Probably mostly has an impact on imported luxury cars from Europe…which is something that wont have that great an impact on the American consumer because those buying BMW’s or Mercs aren’t particularly worried about ticket prices that mere normal people would be worried by.
Many of those Mercs and BMWs are made here anyway.
BMW Plant Spartanburg will once again be the sole manufacturing center for the X series.
I’m pretty confident they will close Rosslyn and scale back San Luis Potosi.
It isn’t a tax AT ALL because the choice to pay it belongs to the consumer. Buy expensive imported goods or buy less expensive American goods.
Buying choices happen every time someone goes into the marketplace and always have; it is the CONSUMER who effects pricing by his buying choices. If a foreign manufacturer is finding the vast and prosperous American market is no longer purchasing its products, they will make changes to get that market back, which will include pressuring their own government to lower barriers to American goods.
There will be very few cases in which the ONLY maker is foreign, since this represents a market niche for a domestic maker which someone is bound to exploit.
My own ox is being gored due to tariffs, because at this moment the only supplier of something my little business uses heavily comes from China, and prices are indeed up.
On the other hand, those prices have been going up steadily for the past 5 years BEFORE tariffs and I know it really a matter of what the market will bear, and I frankly do not trust my Chinese suppliers. If no American manufacturer takes up the slack and prices rise to the point my products don’t sell, then I will change or fail, but this is not uniquely due to Trump’s tariff policies.
The EU and other Nations, have many more protectionist anti free trade policies that are barriers to US exports than just the rate of a tariff. If they bring tariff to zero but maintain an import ban on US beef or import quota restrictions to limit it to miniscule amounts of beef imports then the tariff isn’t the obstacle. That’s just a single simple example of the sorts of non tariff protectionist polices the EU and other Nations impose to prevent free trade. Don’t be distracted by their slight of hand in lowering tariff rate then claiming that they have ‘free trade’ b/c it isn’t true. Tariffs are just one arrow in the protectionist anti free trade quiver.
If I am not mistaken, the EU imposes a VAT on imports which acts just like a tariff. So even if the EU gets rid of everything labeled ‘tariff’ it really hasn’t gotten rid of all tariffs.
Variation on a theme of the “fees” and “surcharges” on telephone bills which are in fact taxes.
I actually don’t have an issue with VAT so long as it is imposed without regard to product origin b/c then it hits domestic as well as imports the same.
Frankly we should junk our tax.code. Go to 15% flat.tax on both passive/active incomes and capital gains. Give a $15K to $20K standard deduction, no other deduction, no refundable ‘credits’ on each taxpayer. No joint filings. Impose our own ‘VAT’ at retail level only of 10% to go along with a base 10% tariff. Live within that revenue. Corporations can deduct payroll, operational costs (lease/utilities/maintenance) and new plant/equipment but not benefits. That puts everyone on same footing for health care costs. Allow individuals an HSA and the govt can redirect Medicaid $ to put $500 per Citizen /green card holder into that HSA annually. Allow catastrophic care IN policy and junk Obama care. Require pricing to risk profile of individual to be insured. Gov’t can make supplement assistance payment to help folks with conditions that make them uninsurable without help in private market or keep a Medicare like option for this population.
LAFFRIOT.
You’re understanding of tariffs is on par with THE MORON’S.
Wear that redhat proudly
{{ GUTBUST}}
On a related note, the dow tanked today.
Gee, you think THE MORON’s next iteration of a tariff ‘policy’ will get it right. How many times has THE MORON changed course alreay ? I lost track after about 20.What an international embarassment. And I’m supposed to be all mortified by Biden’s decline?? SMH.
Out of curiosity, why are you here?
to point out what an ABJECT MORON the orange blob is and how easily conned his cult followers are. Why are you here?
25% tax on Apple products while singling out the CEO by name for retribution, 50% tax on European goods, expulsion of foreign students, bill passed with most debt in history, while hosting a dinner for people who gave you $300+ million. All in the last 24 hours.
The Golden Age.
EU: how are we going to keep telling people that socialism is superior to your capitalism if you stop subsidizing the world!!!!!?!?!!!
anyone else see trumps executive order signing today!!??!
he once again smokes the opposition into oblivion
There are so many problems with THE MORON’S idiotic tariff policies I don’t know where to begin. One is the obvious. Only him and few maga lackeys beliEve in them. I’m not talking about tariffs, which have been around forever. I’m talking about THE MORON’S fantasy that tariffs will bring back American manufacturing. For one thing nobody want to work in factory but immigrants, but MAGA’s want to keep America white. For another, nobody is going to invest in building a factory when the tariffs will disappear in a few years.