The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced that he may impose a 25% tariff on automobile imports from the European Union starting April 2, as well as similar or higher tariffs on pharmaceutical products and semiconductor chips.
“The European Union has been very unfair to us. We have a deficit of $350 billion. They do not accept our cars, they do not accept our agricultural products, they accept almost nothing, very little. We will have to correct that and we will do it. I have no doubt about it.”, Trump said at Mar-a-Lago during a signing ceremony for the decree, and he has repeated this in several statements.
Trump indicated that companies would have time to relocate their factories to the U.S. before new tariffs are announced.
This latest announcement from the U.S. president is part of his ongoing plans to increase tariffs, further raising the risk of a trade war between the U.S. and its global partners.
It is worth noting that automobiles and pharmaceuticals are two of the main exports from the European Union (EU) to the U.S., and European automobile manufacturers may face increasing challenges if Trump imposes compounded import tariffs on products coming from Mexico and Canada.
