On Wednesday 26 February, US President Donald Trump announced that European products will “soon” be taxed at 25%, the same level as Canadian and Mexican products.
“We’ve made the decision and we’ll be announcing it soon: it will be 25%”, vowed Mr Trump at the first meeting of his cabinet in the White House. The President said that Europeans did not accept US cars and agricultural products. “They take advantage of us in a different way” from Canada or Mexico, he added.
For its part, the European Commission has always maintained that the European market is among the most accessible in the world.
According to Donald Trump, however, although the Europeans might be tempted to retaliate, “they won’t”. “They can try to do it, but the effects will never be the same, because we can leave. We are the horn of plenty, which is what everyone wants, and they can try to retaliate, but it won’t work”, he explained. And he added: “All we have to do is stop buying anything, and if that happens, we’ll win”.
The EU has a positive trade balance with the United States of $150 billion in goods, but a deficit in services.
On 11 February, following the announcement of a flat tariff of 25% on all steel and aluminium imports starting 12 March, the European Commission warned that “unjustified tariffs imposed on the EU will not go unchallenged” and would trigger “firm and proportionate countermeasures” (see EUROPE 13577/1). A few days later, the European Commissioner for Trade, Maroš Šefčovič, travelled to Washington for talks on tariffs with the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and Jamieson Greer, who has been appointed US Trade Representative (see EUROPE 13584/14).
Mr Trump also said that “the European Union was created to piss off the United States”. “That was the objective and they achieved it. But from now on I am the President”, he warned. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Léa Marchal)