On Friday, President Trump expressed frustration with the pace of talks with EU leaders and threatened to raise the tariff rate in the region to an even higher level of 50% as soon as June 1st.
Trump posted on Truth Social:
“Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable. Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Threfore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.”
Last month, Trump announced a 20% tariff on most EU goods, but later cut it to 10% to allow time for negotiations, which apparently aren't happening fast enough for him.
However on Sunday, he announced that he was pushing his deadline back to July 9th after a “very nice” call with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, who echoed Trump's assessment of the call and said that the block was “ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively.”
Prior to threatening the 50% rate, Trump had set a deadline of July 8th for both sides to talk, so in the end, he negotiated the EU an extra day.
In other tariff news this week… President Trump threatened a 25% tariff on all foreign manufactured iPhones and Samsung phones, to encourage the companies to move their manufacturing to the US. Trump said that to be fair, the tariff would apply to all phone manufacturers and “that'll start on, I guess, the end of June.”
Following the announcement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he's prepared to sue if appropriate to defend the state's companies like Apple.
Bonta said:
“We definitely will assess our potential role. We will be monitoring what he does, if he does anything, and we'll make sure that if the law is broken and we have standing to sue, we'll take appropriate action.”