Donald Trump. Photo: Evan Vucci / AP / Profimedia
US President Donald Trump said the European Union was “very intelligent” after decided on Thursday to suspend its response to US customs duties, one day after it made a similar decision on these rates, reports France Presse.
“They were prepared to announce reprisals, and then they learned what we did about China and others (…) and they said” you know what, we will refrain a little “, Donald Trump said during a meeting with members of its administration, repeating the accusation that the EU was” conceived for the purpose of the United States. “
How Trump triggered commercial war
The United States imposed, in a first stage, 25% customs duties on steel, aluminum, vehicles and components of the auto industry, regardless of the country of origin.
In the second stage, Donald Trump announced on April 3, customs duties consisting of a 10% basic fee for all imports (except for those already charged with 25% and exceptions regarding energy products, semiconductors, etc.), to which for dozens of countries are added additional customs duties depending on the US and the US Imports. For example, for the products imported from the EU countries, the customs duties charged by the US have reached 20%.
Customs taxes imposed on China reached 145%
For the products imported by the US from China the percentage of customs duties announced by Trump last Wednesday was 34%, to which were added the 20%existing taxes, therefore 54%. China responded immediately with reprisals, imposing in a first decision of such 34% customs duties on the products imported from the US. But Trump responded even more, to 104%, these taxes charged from imports from China, which in turn then responded by increasing customs taxes on US imports to 84%.
This Wednesday, Donald Trump announced that after many countries have applied for negotiations with Washington and, unlike China, they abstained from commercial reprisals against the US, suspends for 90 days additional customs taxes, ie those that exceed the 10%basic level, except for China applied to 125%.
And according to a decree published on Thursday by the White House, this 125% percentage is added to the 20% in force in March, therefore reaching 145%.
China “played stupidly,” Trump says about Beijing's Riposta at American customs
How did the EU react to Trump's rates
The European Union on Wednesday adopted a set of customs duties between 10% and 25% on a series of various American products, from motorcycles to soy or poultry, as reprisals for 25% customs duties imposed by the United States for steel, aluminum, vehicles and components of the automotive industry.
However, the European Commission on Thursday announced the suspension of application for 90 days of these retrival fees, after Trump's announcement also 90 days of additional customs duties exceeding the 10%basic customs tax level.
- “We want to give the negotiations a chance,” the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Thursday. “But if the negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will enter into force,” she added.
However, the 25% customs duties imposed by the US for steel, aluminum, vehicles and components of the auto industry seem to remain in force, Trump's last announcement referring only to the other customs duties that exceed the 10% basic level. For the latter the European Commission should have announced a second set of reprisal measures, which would have been added to those announced on Wednesday and are now suspended next week.
An unusual creativity: EU customs duties will hit Trump in the most vulnerable point
