President Donald Trump dumped the European Union in the worst category of America’s trade partners Wednesday, hitting the bloc with a 20 percent tariff on all imports.
Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement puts the 27-nation bloc in the trade sin bin along with major economies like China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. The move throws up U.S. trade barriers that haven’t been this high since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Trump said he was declaring a national emergency to impose a 10 percent tariff on imports from all countries. Aside from that, he imposed individualized additional tariffs on approximately 60 countries the United States which he believes are the worst trade offenders.
A White House official said the 10 percent tariff would take effect early the morning of April 5 and the additional tariff on the worst offenders on April 9.
“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” Trump said in the White House Rose Garden.
“Now we’re going to charge the European Union. They’re very tough. Very, very tough traders. You know, you think of the European Union, very friendly. They rip us off. It’s so sad to see. It’s so pathetic,” Trump said.
“We are going to charge them 20 percent,” the U.S. president said.
The Trump administration estimates the tariffs charged by the European Union to the United States at 39 percent, and cuts this figure by half to come up with the 20 percent, in what Trump labelled “kind reciprocal” tariffs.
The Trump administration took particular offense at what it views as the EU’s nontariff barriers, such as value-added tax and its tech regulations.
Trump’s tariff offensive came as a slap in the face of the European Union, which sought to bring his administration to the negotiation table in the lead-up to Wednesday’s announcement. EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič went to Washington twice to meet with his U.S. counterparts — to no avail.
The European Commission said earlier it would respond in one strike to President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs and auto tariffs, on top of its answer to U.S. steel and aluminum duties already in force.
Some goods will not be subject to the new reciprocal tariffs, the White House said in a factsheet, including steel and aluminum that are already subject to 25 percent tariffs, and autos, where duties of 25 percent were due to kick in overnight. Also not subject to the duties are copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber, bullion, and energy and minerals not available in the United States.
(This story has been updated.)
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