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Donald Trump said that from 1 August he would impose the rates of 30 percent on Mexico and the EU in a movement that would further harm the American relations with two of the best trading partners.
The president has issued the new tariff threats in two letters that were placed on Truth Social on Saturday morning.
While the letter to the EU followed a similar template as more than 20 other threatening missives that the US President posted this week, Trump also accused Mexico of ‘not stopping the cartels’.
Earlier this year, the US Mexico and Canada threatened with rates of 25 percent to take revenge for what Trump said was a failure to stop illegal immigration and the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl over the shared boundaries of the countries with the US.
In his letter to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Trump recognized that the country had “helped him” to “secure the border”. But said that the efforts had not gone far enough.
Both letters to the EU and Mexico gave the trade deficit of the US the fault of each country for the new rates. “The trade deficit is a major threat to our economy and, indeed, our national security!” Trump wrote.
The prospect of new levies on two of the nearest American allies and trading partners refers to a turbulent week in which Trump has threatened more than 20 countries with rates – as well as announcing imminent levies of 50 percent on copper.
The letter to the EU comes, although European officials have spent weeks commuting between Brussels and Washington to close a deal that can be accepted by the EU member states.
The two parties have worked on plans to reduce the rate of 25 percent on vehicles and consider an agreement to abolish taxes on spirits, planes and parts. The EU is also willing to reduce its surplus of € 198 billion in goods by connecting to buy more American weapons and liquid natural gas.
So far, the EU has not taken revenge against Trump’s rates, including a 25 percent levy on cars and car parts, a rate of 50 percent on steel and aluminum and a basic line of 10 percent on most goods.
On Saturday, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that EU director “assume[s] Note ‘of Trump’s letter.
“The imposition of 30 percent rates for EU export would disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains, at the expense of companies, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic,” she said.
The EU had “consistently prioritized a negotiated solution” with the US and was “ready to continue to work on an agreement by August 1”. The EU was also ready to impose counterfeit “if necessary”, she added.
The threat of 30 percent – with more than two weeks of potential time that remains for discussions about a compromise agreement – seemed to be a negotiating tactic, in accordance with an EU diplomat informed about the discussions between Brussels and Washington.
Ambassadors from the 27 Member States of the EU will meet to discuss the threat on Sunday afternoon, according to people who have informed the plans.
In a statement, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called for “Goodwill … to reach a fair agreement that can strengthen the West as a whole”. “It would not make sense to activate a trade war between the two sides of the Atlantic,” she said, adding that both parties should avoid “polarization”.
Mexico, together with Canada, had already secured important exemptions from the most dramatic of Trump’s levies and had been avoided with a mutual rate on 2 April.
After revealing rates of 25 percent on his two largest trading partners in March, Trump later declined the attack and said that the rates would not apply to goods that met the conditions of the US’s free trade agreement with its neighbors.
The exemption means that about 87 percent of Mexican goods have entered the American tariff -free between January and March of this year, according to the Mexican Economy Ministry.
However, the country will still be hit with the rate of Trump of 50 percent on all samples and aluminum import.
The Trump administration has also launched national security rounds that can lead to rates for chips, wood, space components, medicines and consumer electronics.
Additional reporting by Alice Hancock and Henry Foy in Brussels and Christine Murray in Mexico City
