US President Donald Trump has announced he is recommending a 50% tariff on goods imported from the European Union, effective from 1 June 2025.
In a statement on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump accused the EU of being “very difficult” in trade negotiations, describing the current US trade deficit with the EU—reportedly exceeding $250 billion annually—as “totally unacceptable.”
Trump claimed the European Union was originally established primarily to exploit the US in trade deals. He highlighted a range of alleged EU practices, including significant trade barriers, VAT taxes, corporate penalties, non-monetary trade barriers, monetary manipulations, and “unfair and unjustified lawsuits against American companies.”
“Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025,” Trump stated, adding that US-manufactured products would not be subject to these tariffs.
Following Trump’s announcement, European stock markets immediately experienced significant declines. Germany’s DAX dropped by 1.9%, Italy’s FTSE MIB fell by 2%, and the Stoxx 600 Banks Index decreased by 1.7%. In the UK, London’s FTSE 100 was down by 1.1%, losing 101 points, with banking stocks among the hardest hit.
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