President Trump announced in a letter posted to social media on Saturday that he would place a 30 percent tariff on goods from the European Union, upending months of careful negotiations and further roiling what is one of the world’s most important economic relationships.
Mr. Trump’s tariffs would take effect on Aug. 1, like those on many other trading partners.
The United States and the European Union, a trading bloc of 27 nations that collectively make up the world’s third-largest economy, do a huge amount of trade in goods and services. Given their close ties, European officials had been hoping they could manage to strike a deal with their American counterparts to avoid such steep levies.
Maros Sefcovic, the European Union’s trade commissioner, has been in regular contact with the U.S. commerce secretary and trade representative. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has spoken to Mr. Trump. And until very recently, officials had hoped they were on the cusp of a deal.
E.U. policymakers had gradually come around to the possibility that the bloc could face 10 percent across-the-board tariffs on all goods sent to the United States, and were hoping to negotiate exceptions for important products. Many of the policymakers were eager to end the economic uncertainty that Mr. Trump’s trade announcements had unleashed on German carmakers, Italian wine exporters and Irish pharmaceutical companies alike.
But things changed with Mr. Trump’s announcement on Saturday of a flat 30 percent tariff, and his threat to make that rate even higher should the bloc retaliate.
“If for any reason you decide to raise your tariffs and retaliate, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 30 percent that we charge,” Mr. Trump wrote in the letter, which echoed a form letter he has been sending out to many American trading partners announcing their tariff rate.
Zunaira Saieed contributed reporting.
Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
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