Trump Says US Has Decided to Impose Tariffs on EU

President Donald Trump reportedly said Wednesday (Feb. 26) that the U.S. has decided to impose tariffs on the European Union (EU) and will announce the details soon.

“It’ll be 25% generally speaking, and that will be on cars and all other things,” Trump said during the first cabinet meeting of his second term, the Financial Times (FT) reported Wednesday.

Trump has long viewed the economic relationship between the U.S. and the EU as unbalanced, according to the report.

“They’ve really taken advantage of us in a different way,” Trump said at the Wednesday cabinet meeting, per the report. “They don’t accept our cars. They don’t accept essentially our farm products, they use all sorts of reasons why not.”

The European Commission said Wednesday that the EU would “react firmly and immediately against unjustified barriers to free and fair trade,” according to the report.

Trump already imposed tariffs on China, and reportedly said on Monday (Feb. 24) he would resume tariffs on Canada and Mexico next week, following the conclusion of a 30-day pause in the policy.

It was reported Feb. 5 that the EU was prepared to retaliate if Trump imposes tariffs.

That retaliation could come in the form of restrictions on trade in services against American Big Tech companies and could include Europe revoking intellectual property rights protections or their commercial uses — for things like software downloads and streaming services.

The proposed and already-enacted tariff policies have put corporate compliance and financial strategy back in the spotlight, PYMNTS reported Feb. 18.

For CFOs, the implications of these policies include not just managing costs but also dedicating resources to track tariff rule changes, file accurate import documentation and ensure suppliers meet regulations in the U.S.

The threats of tariffs have also given American consumers a crash course in global trade, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote in an article posted Feb. 19.

A study conducted by PYMNTS Intelligence between Feb. 5 and Feb. 12 found that 71% of U.S. consumers and small businesses said they are knowledgeable about the potential import tariffs.

More than half of those informed consumers — 57%, to be exact — think the tariffs will hit their wallets hard.