Trump threatens 25% tariffs on EU, claims bloc was formed to ‘screw’ US

Donald Trump, president of the United States, has stated that he will impose a 25% tariff on European imports, claiming that the bloc was established to “screw” his nation.

Trump stated at his cabinet’s opening meeting on Wednesday that a tariff decision had been made and that it would be made “very soon” and that it would be made public.

“It’ll be 25 percent, generally speaking”, Trump told reporters. “And that’ll be on cars and all other things”.

Trump made the repeated claim that the US is unfairly treated in trade by claiming that the 27-member union refuses to accept US vehicles and farm products because it “takes everything from them” as he frequently did.

US imports of US vehicles are currently subject to a 10% tariff from the EU, which is four times the US’s current tariff on imported passenger vehicles.

The US, however, applies a 25 percent tariff to imported pick-up trucks.

“Look, let’s be honest, the European Union was formed in order to screw the United States”, Trump said.

“That’s the purpose of it, and they’ve done a good job of it”.

Trump’s comments drew a swift response from the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, which said the world’s largest single market area had been “a boon” for the US.

Unjustified barriers to free and fair trade, including when tariffs are used to challenge legal and non-discriminatory policies, the EU will immediately respond, according to a spokesperson.

“The EU will always protect European businesses, workers and consumers from unjustified tariffs”.

Trump’s claims were responded to more incisively by other European observers.

“Trumps hates the EU”, Gérard Araud, a former French ambassador to the US, said on X.

“He doesn’t know exactly what it is but he hates it”.

Carl Bildt, Sweden’s prime minister from 1991 to 1994, said that Trump had a “seriously distorted” view of the EU’s history.

According to Bildt, “It was actually established to stop war on the European continent.”

Trump’s latest trade salvo comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Brussels over his administration’s “America First” approach to international affairs.

Trump’s rhetoric toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and his verbal attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have sparked concern about both his commitment to Europe’s security and the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Officials in Kyiv and Brussels worry that the US president is reluctant to reach a peace agreement that favors Russia, including allowing Moscow to keep the Ukrainian land it seized during its invasion, with Trump promising to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine.

On Monday, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz said his country must achieve “independence” from the US because “Americans, or at least this portion of the Americans … care very little about the fate of Europe”.

After his Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) alliance won the most seats in parliamentary elections on Sunday, Merz said he was uncertain whether NATO would still exist in its current form by the middle of this year or whether we would need to establish an independent European defense capability much sooner.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed questions about NATO’s future in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, asking European governments to put more money into their own defense.

“My reaction is NATO is not in jeopardy. When asked about Merz’s comments, Rubio said that the only thing that puts NATO in danger is that NATO Allies have militaries that are hardly ever present or that have not been very effective because they have spent 40 years not investing in them.

Source: Aljazeera