The US tariffs for goods from Canada and Mexico are also 25 percent. These should come into force on April 2, as Trump’s Minister of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced. Trump initially suspended the tariffs for the two neighboring countries shortly after the announcement.
Trump took sharp criticism of the EU on Wednesday. “Let’s be honest: the European Union was founded to rip off the United States,” said Trump at the cabinet meeting. “That was the goal and they did it. But now I’m the president,” he said. The EU countries could react with retaliation, but “the effect will never be the same”.
The commission spokesman rejected Trump’s words. “The European Union is the largest free trade zone in the world. It has been a stroke of luck for the United States,” he replied.
Trump had threatened to reciprocal tariffs – for imports from countries that treated the USA “unfair”, including the EU countries. “If you impose a customs or a tax on us, we will impose exactly the same amount of customs or tax for you, it is so simple,” he said two weeks ago when signing a memorandum that should prepare the tariff.
“In order to protect European interests, we would have no choice but to respond quickly and quickly,” said EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic in Washington last week. Additional US tariffs on EU products would create unnecessary export obstacles for companies and their employees on both sides of the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, the US Senate Jamieson Greer confirmed as Trump’s trade officer with 56 to 43 votes. It should play a headquarters in the implementation of Trump’s trade strategy. Greer was the chief of staff of the then trade officer Robert Lighthizer in Trump’s first term. Lighthizer, in turn, is considered an architect of hard US trade policy, which aims to reduce the foreign trade deficit and bring back production back into the country. Greer is a lawyer and most recently worked as a partner in a law firm.
