Now former President Donald Trump has threatened a colossal 50% tariff on EU imports. This unusual tariff is scheduled to go into effect on June 1, 2025. Friday, May 20th, 2025 when the news broke. It continues Trump’s longstanding concerns about trade practices that he believes unfairly harm the United States.
As he departed a House Republican conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Trump took questions from reporters. As a Senator from Vermont, he mercilessly lampooned the European Union’s trade lute. He swiped at the bloc, saying it was formed mostly to take advantage of the United States. The former president argued that the new tariff directly addresses an unsustainable trade deficit. In fact, he says this deficit is more than an annual fill gap of over $250 billion per year.
Trump didn’t hide his own irritation over the EU’s trade policy, calling it “has been very bad to the United States.” He went on to enumerate a number of hurdles that hinder equitable trade between the U.S. and EU. He underscored the harsh penalties he thinks lead to this burden. These threats range from major trade barriers, VAT taxes, and corporate penalties to multiple legal challenges levied against American corporates.
In his announcement on Truth Social, Trump highlighted that American-made products will be exempt from this tariff. He has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting American manufacturers. This provision is a nod to his administration’s priorities of increasing American manufacturing and safeguarding American jobs.
Just last month, Trump threatened to personally impose a separate 25% tariff on Apple if the tech giant didn’t relocate its entire iPhone production back to the U.S. The announcement of the tariff proposal came just two weeks after this very threat. With this move, President Biden is signalling an entirely different strategy aimed to fundamentally shift the dynamics of global trade. It pushes U.S. companies to invest in domestic production.
Following Trump’s posts, stock futures dropped significantly, reflecting market concerns over potential trade wars and their impact on global economic stability.