May 23rd, US President Trump stated on his self-created social media platform "Truth Social" that he proposed to directly impose a 50% tariff on the EU starting from June 1st, 2025.
According to reports, on that day, Trump posted, "The main purpose of the EU's establishment is to take advantage of the United States in trade, and it has always been very difficult to deal with. They have set up strong trade barriers, imposed value-added taxes, imposed absurd corporate fines, set up non-monetary trade barriers, engaged in currency manipulation, and initiated unfair and unreasonable lawsuits against US companies. Our negotiations with them have made no progress!"
Trump then announced that he proposed to directly impose a 50% tariff on EU products starting from June 1st, 2025. However, if the products are made or produced in the United States, no tariffs will be required.
According to previous reports, in April, the United States announced that it would impose a so-called "reciprocal" 20% tariff on most EU goods, and later announced that it would only retain a 10% basic tariff within a 90-day period, with the deadline being July 8th, to allow for more time for negotiations. Meanwhile, the United States has maintained tariffs on steel, aluminum, and auto parts at the 25% level and threatened to take similar actions against pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and other goods.
Since then, although the EU has suspended its plan to impose retaliatory tariffs on some US goods, the United States and the EU have made little progress on substantive issues.
