{"id":150846,"date":"2025-05-24T18:30:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T18:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-he-is-hitting-eu-with-50-tariff-as-trade-talks-are-going-nowhere-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T18:30:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T18:30:56","slug":"trump-says-he-is-hitting-eu-with-50-tariff-as-trade-talks-are-going-nowhere-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-he-is-hitting-eu-with-50-tariff-as-trade-talks-are-going-nowhere-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he is hitting EU with 50% tariff as trade talks are \u2018going nowhere\u2019 &#8211; The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President says EU imports to US will be subject to levy from 1 June as markets slump in reaction to \u2018major escalation\u2019<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/donaldtrump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Donald Trump<\/a> has said he will impose a 50% tariff on all EU imports to the US from 1 June after claiming trade talks between the two trading blocs were \u201cgoing nowhere\u201d.<br \/>In a surprise announcement, the US president posted on his Truth Social platform that his long-running battle to secure concessions from the EU had stalled.<br \/>He accused the EU of taking advantage of the US on trade, saying: \u201cOur discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/eu\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">European Union<\/a>, starting on June 1, 2025.\u201d<br \/>Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump claimed the EU had \u201ctaken advantage\u201d of the US and claimed the new tariffs would be imposed unless EU companies moved their operations to the US.<br \/>\u201cIt\u2019s time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game,\u201d said Trump.<br \/>Stock markets slumped in response to the news, the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down 1% as Trump also signalled plans to impose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/may\/23\/donald-trump-threatens-25-percent-tariff-iphones-not-made-in-us\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">tariffs on Apple<\/a>, Samsung and other phone manufacturers. The broader S&amp;P 500 lost 0.68%. The STOXX Europe 600 index fell by 1.7%. In London the FTSE 100 closed down 0.2% after initially dropping as much as 1.5%. Germany\u2019s car makers were particularly hard hit, with BMW down 3.7%, Volkswagen off 2.6% and Mercedes-Benz down 4%.<br \/>The EU\u2019s trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, responded on Friday that the bloc would secure a trade deal with the US in \u201cgood faith\u201d guided by \u201cmutual respect, not threats\u201d.<br \/>After a call with US trade representative Jamieson Greer and Trump\u2019s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, Sefcovic said the 27-member union was \u201cfully engaged, committed to securing a deal that works for both\u201d.<br \/>\u201cEU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats. We stand ready to defend our interests.\u201d<br \/>The US imposed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/apr\/02\/trump-new-tariffs-liberation-day\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">20% \u201creciprocal\u201d rate on most EU goods on 2 April<\/a>, but halved that rate a week later until 8 July to allow time for talks. It has retained 25% import taxes on steel, aluminium and vehicle parts and is threatening similar action on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and other goods.<br \/>Sign up to <span>Business Today<\/span><br \/>Get set for the working day \u2013 we&#x27;ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<br \/>after newsletter promotion<br \/>\u201cThis is a major escalation of trade tensions,\u201d said Holger Schmieding, the chief economist at Berenberg, on Friday. \u201cWith Trump you never know but this would be a major escalation. The EU would have to react and it is something that would really hurt the US and European economy.\u201d<br \/>EU negotiators have been locked in meetings with White House representatives since Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cliberation day\u201d tariffs were first announced. Dozens of countries have been holding discussions to try to bring down their own levies before the 90-day pause elapses.<br \/>The White House has relented on many of its most onerous tariffs, including lowering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/may\/12\/china-us-agree-pause-trade-war-trump\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">total tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%<\/a> after what Trump declared were constructive talks with Beijing, which lowered its retaliatory border taxes from 125% to 10% in response.<br \/>A week ago the US president appeared to acknowledge that Washington lacked the ability to negotiate deals with scores of countries at once, saying the US would instead send letters to some trading partners to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/may\/16\/trump-us-tariff-rates-trading-partners\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">unilaterally impose new tariff rates<\/a>.<br \/>Perceptions of an easing back on a hardline approach to trade brought a period of calm to stock markets, but Friday\u2019s threat of a 50% levy on EU goods, plus a separate threat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/may\/23\/donald-trump-threatens-25-percent-tariff-iphones-not-made-in-us\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">made the same day of 25% tariffs on iPhones made abroad<\/a>, have brought an end to the peace.<br \/>The EU presented a fresh trade proposal to the US on Thursday. The offer included phased tariff cuts on non-sensitive goods, plus cooperation on energy, AI and digital infrastructure. The bloc was readying about $108bn in retaliatory tariffs if talks failed.<br \/>To sweeten the deal, EU officials were also willing to extend a 2020 tariff-free arrangement on US lobster imports, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/1c8daef9-6bf4-4977-b296-f4b60be1a548\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">according to the Financial Times<\/a>. But it appears to have proved insufficient to persuade the US president to sign a deal allowing only his 10% universal tariff to apply to the EU, as it does the UK.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMihAFBVV95cUxOU25qOHctZmptQmZZWVNXNWg4MVVaTm1rLWpXdFlrVEZ5RmlnNG80d0pTTWE5VERUQnY4WmhrRkc5dlBqYnVnZTFZMXhyV0E0Ti1fZWczMVpRTnJhZDlvaXp0OVFmdjlMT1N6T0JwMnNYbndXblVRVEl0ZjViUTR3Z2hza3Q?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President says EU imports to US will be subject to levy from 1 June as markets slump in reaction to \u2018major escalation\u2019Donald Trump has said he will impose a 50% tariff on all EU imports to the US from 1 June after claiming trade talks between the two trading blocs were \u201cgoing nowhere\u201d.In a surprise [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}