Customs duties: Donald Trump announces that he will tax European products at 25% "soon", the EU assures that it will react "firmly"

Donald Trump is about to follow through on his threats. The American president announced on Wednesday, during his first cabinet meeting at the White House, that European products will be subject to 25% customs duties "soon" . "We have made the decision, and we will announce it soon, it will be 25%" , assured the head of state, the level at which Canadian and Mexican products should also be taxed from the beginning of April. The EU, through the voice of the European Commission, assures that it will react "firmly and immediately" . "The EU will always protect European businesses, workers and consumers against unjustified customs duties" , it stated in a long press release.

The day before, however , Emmanuel Macron said he hoped to have convinced the American president to avoid implementing additional customs duties on products from the old continent. "This is really not the time to increase customs duties. Why? Because the urgent thing is to increase our spending on defense and security. How do you expect us to do that if we are in a trade war?" , the French president pretended to wonder, on a visit to Washington. Arguments that apparently did not convince his American counterpart.

Donald Trump had already warned the European Union against these additional taxes, judging his country mistreated by Brussels. "I take note of what has been done. But the EU has been very unfair to us, we have a trade deficit of 350 billion dollars, they do not buy our cars, our agricultural products, they buy almost nothing, we must rectify that" , he justified himself, in mid-February. "The EU maintains customs duties among the lowest in the world and sees no justification for the increase in American customs duties on its exports" , estimated, for its part, the European Commission, a few days earlier.

Also read : “We must show that we are ready to use it”: this weapon of deterrence that Europe can use in the face of Trump’s customs duties

"The EU was designed to piss off the United States. That was the goal and they succeeded. But now I am the president," he said, adding that European countries could be tempted to retaliate but "they won't do it." "They can try to do it, but the effects will never be the same, because we can leave. We are the cornucopia, what everyone wants and they can try to retaliate, but it won't work," he repeated. "All we have to do is stop buying anything, and if that happens, we win," he insisted.

Also read: The European trade surplus, a target worth several hundred billion dollars in Donald Trump's sights

As a reminder, as Donald Trump points out, the European Union has a large surplus in its trade with the United States each year. Enough to bring the Twenty-Seven hundreds of billions of euros. The surplus has continued to increase, according to Eurostat, tripling between 2003 and 2024. According to the latest Eurostat data, the trade balance between the two sides of the Atlantic was positive for Europeans between January and November 2024 inclusive, in the order of 183 billion euros.