Trump announces 30% tariffs on EU and Mexico

US President Donald Trump said on July 12 that the US will impose a 30% tariff on goods from the European Union and Mexico that will take effect on August 1, Report informs referring to CNBC.

Trump revealed the new rates in letters to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, which he posted on his social media site Truth Social.

He said that if the EU or Mexico retaliates with higher tariffs, “then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added on to the 30% that we charge,” Trump wrote in both of the letters.

The EU was seeking at least a preliminary agreement that would spare it from becoming the latest recipient of a letter from Trump dictating a new, across-the-board tariff on its exports to the US.

The 27-member bloc collectively sells more to the US than any other country: Total US goods imports from the EU topped $553 billion in 2022, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.

However, it still managed to secure one, despite both sides having recently signaled progress in their negotiations after Trump backed off a threat to slap 50% tariffs on the bloc.

Trump has sent similar letters to 23 other US trading partners this week, including Canada, Japan and Brazil, setting blanket tariff rates ranging from 20% up to 50%.

The letters mostly frame the new tariff levels as a necessary part of the Trump administration’s efforts to quickly establish a more “reciprocal” global trade landscape.

Trump had attempted to do that in one fell swoop with his “liberation day” tariff announcement on April 2, when he imposed a nearly global 10% tariff and slapped higher duties on imports from nearly 60 individual countries.

The announcement prompted days of frenzied selling in global markets. Trump put a 90-day pause on nearly all of the higher tariffs a week later.