The president announced the import taxes on the European Union as well as a 25 percent tariff on iPhones made outside the United States on Friday.
President Donald Trump said Friday that he is not looking to reach a tariff deal with the European Union, after he announced 50 percent duties on goods imported from the 27-nation bloc.
When speaking to reporters in the White House, Trump said, “I’m not looking for a deal” with the EU and that the 50 percent tariff is scheduled to go into effect on June 1, responding to a question on whether he anticipated an agreement to come with the EU before June 1.
“We’ve set the deal—it’s at 50 percent. But again, there is no tariff if they build their plant here,” Trump said, also saying that as of “right now, it’s going on June 1st.”
Elaborating, Trump said that the United States has “a big deficit with them” and that they “sell millions and millions of cars” to the United States, but that in return, the EU restricts U.S. car imports.
“I’ve been saying to everybody they’ve been treating us very badly over the years,” Trump said to reporters. “[The EU] was formed in order to hurt the United States, in order to take advantage of the United States, and they’ve done that.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a Friday interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” indicated that other countries have been making trade offers in good faith, and that talks advanced with some of them, including India and some Asian countries that have made some “very interesting proposals.”
“And I believe the president believes that the EU proposals have not been of the same quality that we’ve seen from our other important trading partners,” Bessent said.
The secretary added that the feedback he’s getting from some EU countries is that they are unaware of proposals being put forth by the European Commission from Brussels.
“I’m not going to negotiate on TV, but I would hope that this would light a fire under the EU,” Bessent said. “The EU has a collective action problem here. It’s 27 countries, but they’re being represented by this one group in Brussels.”
