Trump says 50 percent import tariffs will be imposed on European Union on June 1

US President Donald Trump said today, May 23, that the United States will soon impose a 50 percent import tariff on the European Union.

“The European Union, which was created primarily to disadvantage the United States on trade, is very difficult to deal with,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

He later added that “our discussions with them are going nowhere” and that the plan is to impose a 50 percent tariff on imports on June 1, Zachary Stieber writes .

According to Trump, the import tariffs will not apply to products built or manufactured in the United States.

The EU consists of 27 countries, including Austria, France and Germany.

“The European Union and the United States are negotiating. Some are negotiating behind closed doors, others more in front of the cameras,” Polish Trade Minister Michal Baranowski told reporters on Friday after Trump’s social media post.

“The fact that we see some important statements in public does not mean that these will translate into actions by the US government.”

Trump said in January that he would impose tariffs on the Union because “if you think about it, other countries are imposing tariffs on us, we are not imposing tariffs on them, and it's time for that to change.”

The president said one of the problems was the value-added tax, known as VAT, which is levied on American goods sold to European countries.

America later imposed a 20 percent tariff on EU goods, as well as a higher tariff on steel and aluminum products.

Trump suspended the 20 percent tariff, along with tariffs against many other countries, for 90 days in April while negotiations continued. The EU then suspended the countermeasures it had planned against the United States “to give the negotiations a chance.”

EU officials have repeatedly said they oppose import duties, arguing they are economically counterproductive.

The suspension will have been in effect for only 53 days if it is lifted on June 1.

EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic recently told the European Parliament that the Union would prefer a deal.

“We need now a willingness from the United States to move forward toward a fair and balanced solution,” he said, adding later: “We do not feel weak. We do not feel pressured to accept a deal that would not be fair to us.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in Geneva after Sefcovic's speech that Switzerland and Britain are at the forefront of the queue for a trade deal with the United States and that the European Union is moving "much slower".

Trump's announcement on Friday “is a significant escalation of trade tensions,” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg.