European countries will be subject to customs duties, “the only way” for the United States “to be treated correctly”, American President Donald Trump said on Tuesday. During a press conference, he denounced the American trade deficit with the European Union. “The EU is very bad for us. They treat us very badly. They don't take our cars or our agricultural products. In fact they don’t take much,” declared the American president, adding: “So they are good for customs duties. »
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump had already denounced the United States' trade deficit with the EU, comparing the bloc to “a little China”, which “benefits” from the world's leading economic power. “We have a trade deficit with the EU of $350 billion,” he insisted Tuesday, “China is aggressive, but it’s not just China. Other countries are also big aggressors.”
The American trade deficit in its trade with the EU amounted in 2023 to 131 billion dollars, according to data from the White House Trade Representative and is mainly concentrated on four countries, Germany, France, Ireland and Italy.
-But the causes vary: the trade deficit with Germany is mainly of an industrial nature, while that with Ireland is largely linked to the installation of the European headquarters of large American groups on the island, which benefit from it. of its very advantageous taxation to reduce their taxes, both in the rest of Europe and in the United States.
Before being re-elected, Donald Trump had already threatened the EU to impose customs duties on European products unless the bloc increased its purchases of American oil and gas. He had already imposed customs duties on a series of European products during his first mandate, in retaliation for the trade dispute between Washington and Brussels over their respective subsidies to their local airline manufacturer, Boeing and Airbus.
