EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic responded on Saturday to the latest trade threats expressed by U.S. President Trump via social media that warned of a fifty percent tariff on all goods coming from the EU.
The 27-member bloc remains ready to work in good faith, and is fully engaged and committed to securing a deal that works for both parties, according to Sefcovic.
Following a Friday phone call with his U.S. counterpart Jamieson Greer and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnickhe, the EU official said the “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.”
“We stand ready to defend our interests,” Sefcovic’s statement concluded.
In a Friday morning post on his social media platform, Truth Social, President Trump said negotiations with the EU were “going nowhere,” and recommended “a straight fifty percent tariff on the European Union starting June 1, 2025.”
There is no tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States, he added.
In a similar tone, he warned of tariffs on iPhones sold in the U.S.: “I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a tariff of at least twenty-five percent must be paid by Apple to the U.S.”
In the aftermath of Trump’s new tariff threats, experts expressed fears of serious consequences on international trade. After weeks of de-escalation on Trump’s global trade war, major U.S. stock indexes and European shares fell, the dollar weakened, the price of gold rose and U.S. Treasury yields fell, as Reuters pointed out.
Irish and French officials also responded to Trump’s new tariff threats, pointing to negotiations.
“U.S. President Trump’s suggestion today that he is recommending a fifty percent tariff on EU imports from June 1st is enormously disappointing. I have always been clear in my view that tariffs are damaging to all sides,” said Irish Prime Minister, Micheal Martin.
“Tariffs at the level suggested would not only push prices up, they would grievously damage one of the world’s most dynamic and significant trading relationships, as well as disrupting wider global trade,” the Irish leader argued in a lengthy statement.
The French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin agreed that the new threats “do not help at all during the negotiation period between the European Union and the United States.”
“We maintain the same stance: de-escalation, but are ready to respond,” he wrote on X.
