On May 23 (local time), President Donald Trump of the United States announced, "I propose imposing an immediate 50% tariff on the European Union (EU) starting June 1."
President Trump made this statement on his social networking service (SNS), Truth Social, saying, "There has been no progress in negotiations with them."
He pointed out, "The EU, which was created to benefit from trade with the United States, is extremely difficult to deal with." He added, "Because of their strong trade barriers, value-added tax, outrageous corporate penalties, non-tariff trade barriers, currency manipulation, and unfair and unjust lawsuits against American companies, the United States is running an annual trade deficit of $250 million (about 340 billion won)."
President Trump further emphasized, "There will be no tariffs at all on goods made in the United States."
Maro? ?ef?ovi?, EU Trade Commissioner, is scheduled to have a phone call with Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, later this afternoon. It is known that this call was arranged before President Trump announced the 50% tariff imposition.
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