Trump reignites trade fears with new tariffs on EU, Apple
BRUSSELS/BANFF, CANADA/THE HAGUE—US President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to ratchet up his trade war again, pushing for a 50 percent tariff on European Union goods starting June 1 and warning Apple he may slap a 25 percent levy on all imported iPhones.
The twin threats, delivered via social media, roiled global markets after weeks of deescalation had provided some reprieve in the tariff battle.
Major US stock indexes and European shares fell and the dollar weakened, while the price of gold, a safe-haven for investors, rose. US Treasury yields fell on fears about tariffs’ effect on economic growth.
Trump’s broadside against the EU was prompted by the White House’s belief that negotiations with the bloc are not progressing fast enough. His saber-rattling also marked a return to Washington’s stop-and-start trade war that has shaken markets, businesses and consumers and raised fears of a global economic downturn.
And the president’s attack on Apple is his latest attempt to pressure a specific company to move production to the United States, following automakers, pharmaceutical companies and chipmakers.
No mass production
The United States, however, does not mass-produce smartphones—even as US consumers buy more than 60 million phones annually—and moving production would likely increase the cost of iPhones by hundreds of dollars.
Later on Friday, Trump told reporters inside the Oval Office that his proposed tariff on Apple would also apply to “Samsung and anybody that makes that product,” apparently referring to smartphones.
He said he expected the new phone levy to be in place by the end of June.
Trump reiterated his complaint that the European Union treated the United States badly and restricted the US from selling cars into the EU. “And I just said, ‘It’s time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game.’”
“I’m not looking for a deal,” Trump said when asked whether he expected a deal before June 1. “We’ve set the deal—it’s at 50 percent. But again, there’s no tariff if they build their plant here.”
‘Mutual respect’
EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, was fully committed to securing a deal that worked for both sides, following a Friday phone call with US counterpart Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick. He added that EU-US trade “must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.”
Speaking to reporters in The Hague, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof backed the EU’s strategy in trade talks and said the EU was likely to see this latest announcement as part of the negotiations.
“We have seen before that tariffs can go up and down in talks with the United States,” he said.
The White House paused most of the punishing tariffs Trump announced in early April against nearly every country in the world after investors furiously sold off US assets including government bonds and the US dollar.
Trump left in place a 10 percent baseline tax on most imports, and later reduced his massive 145 percent tax on Chinese goods to 30 percent.
A 50 percent levy on EU imports could raise consumer prices on everything from German cars to Italian olive oil.
