U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday, July 12th, that he would impose a 30% import tariff on products from the European Union and Mexico from August 1st.
Trump announced the news on his own social platform, Truth Social.
The punitive tariffs were first announced in early April, but were then suspended for 90 days following talks with EU leaders. But that deadline has passed and Trump seems to be ready to go ahead with his plan.
The EU had initially hoped to strike a comprehensive trade agreement but more recently had scaled back its ambitions and shifted toward securing a broader framework deal similar to the one the UK brokered.
Trump’s cascade of tariff orders since returning to the White House has begun generating tens of billions of dollars a month in new revenue for the U.S. government. U.S. customs duties revenue topped $100 billion in the federal fiscal year through to June, according to U.S. Treasury data released on Friday.
The August 1st deadline gives the targeted countries time to negotiate agreements that could lower the massive tariffs.
