Trump wants 25 percent tariff on goods from the EU

American President Donald Trump apparently wants to impose a 25 percent tariff on imports from the European Union. He said this at the first cabinet meeting of his government. He did not specify which product groups the intended tariffs would apply to. But he apparently wants to impose a tax on imports of cars and some other products.

Trump, as he has done many times before, pointed to the large trade deficit between the United States and the European Union, which he wants to combat with the tariffs . He said during the cabinet meeting that the European Union was only founded to rip off the USA. Last week, Trump had already announced that he wanted to impose so-called reciprocal tariffs and announce them in April. He wants to retaliate for any tariffs or measures that he considers to be trade barriers by a country with a tariff of the same amount.

He made it clear that he interprets the VAT that is common in the EU and many other countries as a tariff. On average, the EU imposes a tariff of between two and three percent on American imports, which is slightly more than the USA imposes on European imports. The discrepancy is greater for car imports, which the USA imposes 2.5 percent and the EU 10 percent. However, the USA charges 25 percent for pick-up trucks. It is unclear whether the tariffs now announced by Trump will be in addition to the reciprocal tariffs.