U.S. President Donald Trump plans to impose 25% tariffs on imports from the European Union soon, he said during a cabinet meeting on Feb. 26.
In early February, Trump placed 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods, albeit postponing their implementation soon after. He also imposed a 10% tariff on goods from China.
Trump claimed that the EU was formed "to screw the United States," criticizing European policies that, according to him, put American food and cars exporters at a disadvantage.
"We'll be announcing it very soon. It'll be 25% generally speaking, and that will be on cars and all other things," the U.S. president said.
Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order for tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the U.S, prompting the European Commission to threaten retaliatory measures.
The tariffs on steel will also affect Ukraine. Steel production is a key sector of Ukraine's economy, the second-largest source of foreign currency after agriculture.
Ukraine’s metallurgical products make up 57.9% of Ukraine's exports to the U.S., or in dollar amounts, $503 million out of $869 million, said Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko.
The U.S.-EU dispute over tariffs dates back to Trump's first term, when his administration imposed duties on nearly $7 billion worth of European steel and aluminum exports in 2018, citing national security concerns. The EU retaliated with tariffs on American goods.
A temporary truce was reached in 2021 under the Biden administration, with the U.S. partially lifting the tariffs and replacing them with a quota system. In exchange, the EU froze its countermeasures. Trump's latest move threatens to reignite the trade dispute.
The European Commission argued that such restrictions would disrupt the deeply integrated supply chains between the EU and the U.S., raising costs and harming trade between both regions.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
