Trump threatens EU with 50pc tariff, 25pc on Apple

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Friday that Apple would pay a 25 per cent tariff on iPhones that are sold in the United States but not made in the country, Reuters reported.

At the same time, Trump said he is recommending a straight 50 per cent tariff on goods from the European Union starting on June 1, saying the EU has been hard to deal with on trade.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s (sic) that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.

Read more: US tariffs could cost Japan’s top companies up to $27.6 billion

“If that is not the case, a tariff of at least 25 per cent must be paid by Apple to the US,” he added.

Later in the day, he told reporters in the Oval Office that a 25 per cent tariff he says he will impose on Apple would also apply to Samsung and other smartphone makers.

ZOOMING IN ON EUROPEAN UNION

In the Oval Office, Trump also said he was fine with leaving a 50 per cent tariff in place on the European Union absent a trade deal.

At the same, he remarked that his administration could delay the tariffs on European Union, if they (the companies from Europe) started moving to the US.

“The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump had said on Truth Social earlier in the day. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere!”

STOCKS TUMBLE

His remarks triggered a panic as the US futures dropped over 1 per cent soon after he shared his plans Truth Social.

On the other hand, CAC 40 in Paris was down 2.80 per cent and Frankfurt’s DAX had fallen 2.5 per cent by the time this report was being filed.  

Interestingly, Trump resorted to threats at a time when EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic is scheduled to call US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Friday.

That is why the EU declined to comment on the issue until the telephonic conversation between the two sides.

Earlier, it was reported that the European Commission had shared a new list of concessions with the US administration to avert a transatlantic trade war.

TARIFF WAR

The White House has been in negotiations with numerous countries over trade issues, but progress has been unsteady.

Trump’s aggressive tariffs in April, which would have raised the rate consumers and businesses would have to pay for imported goods by roughly 25%, sparked a selloff in U.S. assets, including stocks, the dollar and Treasury bonds. Markets have since rebounded.

It is not clear if Trump can levy a tariff on an individual company. Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

After Trump’s levies on China rose to more than 100 per cent in early April, the White House backed off due to market turmoil, granting exclusions from steep tariffs on smartphones and some other electronics imported largely from China, in a break for Apple and other tech firms that rely on imported products.

Apple aims to make most of its iPhones sold in the United States at factories in India by the end of 2026, and is speeding up those plans to navigate potentially higher tariffs in China, its main manufacturing base, a source told Reuters. Apple is positioning India as an alternative manufacturing base amid Trump’s tariffs on China that have raised supply-chain concerns and fears of higher iPhone prices, Reuters reported last month.

The iPhone maker said most of its smartphones sold in the United States would originate from India in the June quarter.