STORY: “I just said it’s time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game.”
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters, Friday, that a threatened 50% tariff on EU goods, beginning June 1st, could be delayed IF European companies start moving to the United States.
“I’m not looking for a deal. I mean, we’ve set the deal. It’s at 50%. But again, there is no tariff if they build their plant… Now, if somebody comes in and wants to build a plant here, I can talk to them about a little bit of a delay.”
Trump’s broadside was first delivered in a Truth Social post… where he said trade talks with the EU (quote) “are going nowhere.”
Washington is demanding unilateral concessions from Brussels to open up to U.S. business while the EU seeks an agreement in which both sides could gain, according to people familiar with the talks.
“I don’t think there is anything set in stone.”
Polish trade minister Michal Baranowski told reporters on Friday that Trump’s latest tariff threat on EU goods is just another step in their ongoing trade negotiations.
The EU trade Chief said the European Commission was fully committed to securing a deal that worked for both sides, following a Friday phone call with his U.S. counterpart. He added that trade “must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.”
“I think there is significant uncertainty…”
Guntram Wolff is a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economic think tank.
“I think the European Union cannot cave in and should not try to appease Donald Trump at this point. The experience of the last couple of months is that this U.S. president actually blinks. I mean, he actually gives in when faced with the major negative consequences of his actions and so I think it’s important to document and show that this is actually going to be very harmful for the U.S. economy as well as for the European economy.”
Trump on Friday also took aim at Apple, warning he may slap a 25% levy on all iPhones bought by U.S. consumers.
“And you know, the iPhone, if they’re going to sell it in America, I want it to be built in the United States.”
“The President of the United States can do a lot of things…”
Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson says Apple needs to negotiate with the president in good faith:
LURIA: “Right now would be considerably more expensive to make an iPhone in the U.S. // Having said that, in the longer timeframe, in the five-year and beyond timeframe, that does not need to be the case. Very little of the cost of the phone has to do with the assembly labor. A lot more of it has to do with the facilities, the technology around the manufacturing, and the skill set in designing the production of the handsets. That is what we’ve outsourced to China, Taiwan, and elsewhere…”
Trump said other smartphone makers, like Samsung, would also face a 25% tariff.
