Trump threatens to impose 25% tariffs on EU goods

US President Donald Trump has said that European cars and other goods will be subject to a 25% tariff.

“We have made a decision, and we will announce it very soon, and it will be 25%, across the board, and it will be on cars and everything else,” Trump told reporters during the first cabinet meeting of his second presidency.

Trump also accused Europe of taking advantage of the United States.

“They don’t take our cars. They don’t take our agricultural products, essentially. And we take all of them,” Trump said.

He claimed that the European Union was created “to screw the United States.”

The EU currently charges a 10% tariff on vehicle imports, four times the US tariff of 2.5% on passenger cars.

EU vows to respond “strongly” to US tariffs

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said the bloc was “the world’s largest free market” and had become “a boon for the United States.”

The EC said the EU’s single market had “made trade easier, reduced costs for US exporters and harmonised standards and rules across 27 countries.”

“The EU will respond firmly and immediately to unjustified barriers to free and fair trade, in particular when tariffs are used to challenge legitimate and non-discriminatory policies,” a commission spokesman said.

Tags: EU, USA