US President Donald Trump rekindled his trade dispute with the EU on Friday by threatening 50 percent tariffs, as Brussels reacted with a call for “respect.”
Trump also unleashed a broadside against smartphone makers, including US tech giant Apple, threatening them with new duties of 25 percent if they do not move production to the US.
Stock markets fell as Trump’s comments fueled fears of global economic disruption, after a relative lull in recent days after Trump reached deals with China and the UK.
Photo: Bloomberg
Trump first raised the issue of EU tariffs in an early morning post on his Truth Social network.
“Our discussions with them are going nowhere!” he wrote. “Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50 percent Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.”
He doubled down later in the day, telling reporters in the Oval Office that there was nothing the 27-nation bloc could do to change his mind.
“I’m not looking for a deal. I mean, we’ve set the deal. It’s at 50 percent,” Trump said. “They haven’t treated our country properly. They banded together to take advantage of us.”
Trump’s new tariffs would, if imposed, dramatically raise Washington’s current baseline levy of 10 percent and fuel simmering tensions between the world’s biggest economy and its largest trading bloc.
The EU’s trade chief said the bloc would work for a trade deal with Washington based on “respect,” not “threats.”
“The EU’s fully engaged, committed to securing a deal that works for both,” EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maros Sefcovic wrote on X after a previously planned call with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
In a separate message on Friday that also unnerved markets, Trump blasted Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook for failing to move iPhone production to the US despite repeated requests.
Trump said he had “long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.”
“If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25 pecent must be paid by Apple to the US,” he added.
Trump later stepped up his threats, saying he would tariff all smartphones not made in the country.
“It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product, otherwise it wouldn’t be fair,” Trump told reporters, adding that the new tariffs would come into effect from the end of next month.
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
More than 8,000 people took part in a rally in Taipei yesterday to express support for more defense spending, after the opposition slashed the Cabinet’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.6 billion) special defense budget and capped it at NT$780 billion. The demonstrators urged the Cabinet to propose another bill. Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said the main problem of the passed budget plan is the removal of funding for critical items, not just that the total amount is smaller. Critical budget items included purchasing or developing uncrewed vehicles, Strong Bow (強弓) missile systems, additional ammunition, artificial intelligence-powered combat systems and Taiwan-US
RSS