The president’s trade policy includes 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, another 10 percent on China, and a list of planned actions coming soon.
President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Jan. 31 that tariffs will “absolutely” be imposed on the European Union (EU), though no suggestion of the rate or date of implementation was provided.
“The tariffs are going to make us very rich and very strong,” Trump said. “And we’re going to treat other countries very fairly, but if you think about it, other countries charge us tariffs, we don’t charge them tariffs, and it’s about time that that changes.”
He called out the Value Added Tax (VAT) imposed on U.S. goods sold to the EU as an unfair trade practice.
“We’ve been taken advantage of because other countries charge us VATs … and it costs us an absolute fortune,” Trump said. “We are treated so badly. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, essentially, they don’t take almost anything. And we have a tremendous deficit with the European Union, so we’ll be doing something very substantial.”
Because the United Kingdom is no longer part of the EU, its products are not subject to potential actions targeting member countries.
This is not the first time Trump has taken action on the EU, with trade tensions escalating during his first administration. Trump imposed a 25 percent tax on steel and 10 percent on aluminum in 2018 which affected some nations in the EU.
Authorities in the EU responded with retaliatory tariffs targeting American exports, including whiskey, motorcycles, and orange juice, among other items.
When President Biden rolled back the steel and aluminum tariffs in October 2021, the EU likewise removed its measures.
Trump signaled additional tariffs are planned for high-tech chips, oil and gas, aluminum, steel, copper, and medicines.
“It will be a great boost for our steel industry,” he said. “And we want to bring back our pharmaceuticals.”
The Trump administration’s 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico will take effect Feb. 1 until the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigration is addressed, in addition to a 10 percent increase in tariffs on China for allowing the sale of fentanyl precursors.
“We’re not looking for a concession,” Trump said. “We’ll just see what happens.”