If Trump has a problem with the EU as a whole he could betterdeal with individual countries instead the Netherlands for example always showed we are reliable tradepartner with the USA but also India South Korea and Japan we have a substantial trading relationship, with the Netherlands being one of their most important export partners and a significant investor in the economy
Economy • 14:03 • Modified at 14:41 Trump threatens 50 percent tariffs against EU, stock markets in the red Author : BNR Web Editors US President Donald Trump wants to impose a 50 percent import duty on all products from the European Union. This import duty should come into effect on 1 June. Trump just announced this on his own platform Truth Social. Immediately after the news, all major European stock exchanges took a nosedive.
Follow the live blog Trade war | Trump sets sights on EU, threatens 50 percent tariffs In the message, he says that the negotiations with the EU are 'going nowhere'. He says that he 'recommends' those 50 percent levies against the EU. The levies should not apply to products that are produced in the US. In the message, he criticizes, among other things, the EU's trade barriers, VAT and the 'ridiculous fines' that the EU imposes on companies.
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic does not want to comment on a possible trade war until there has been official contact between the EU and a US representative. Trump's timing is striking because a meeting between Sefcovic and his American counterpart Jamieson Greer was already scheduled for this afternoon.
Stock markets in the red The threat immediately dented European stock market trading. The Amsterdam AEX opened higher this morning and was flat for the rest of the day. But almost immediately after Trump posted his message, the stock market indicator dropped sharply. Chip stocks in particular are having a hard time. The American stock market is not yet open, but the futures of the Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500, the three most important stock market indicators in the US, are all down more than one and a half percent.
Image Read also 'Europe looks a little jealously at China and the UK' The gold price seems to benefit directly from the new unrest: it peaked at the moment that Trump announced his possible tariffs. The gold price has benefited from all the stock market unrest in recent weeks. But in recent weeks the gold price has actually fallen, because the unrest had already subsided for a while.
