Trump’s New Tariff Threat Derails Major Trade Deal With EU

The European Parliament is pausing the ratification of a trade agreement with the U.S. over Donald Trump’s tariff temper tantrum. The legislative body’s international trade committee was supposed to vote Tuesday on a trade deal capping tariffs on imports from the E.U. at 15 percent, but after the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday that Trump’s tariffs are illegal, the fuming president responded by threatening a global tariff of the same rate. Trump’s global tariff uses a different authority than what the court struck down, meaning that it’s an import duty that stacks upon existing tariffs. In effect, European companies will now be paying higher tariffs than they would under the negotiated deal. A “whole range of products which are now much higher than the 15 percent in the old agreement,” said Bernd Lange, a German member of the European Parliament who chairs the committee. As a result, the committee on Monday held an emergency meeting in Brussels and decided to hold off on its vote for now. “This is so uncertain,” Lange said. “It’s unclear if there will be additional measures.” This is the second time the European Parliament suspended ratifying the trade deal. Last month, the legislative body froze the deal after Trump threatened eight European countries with additional tariffs if they didn’t acquiesce to a U.S. takeover of Greenland. EU officials, such as trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic, want to keep the 15 percent tariff deal they negotiated, even though it’s unpopular in Europe because it requires the EU to drop most of its own tariffs. But Trump’s anger over the Supreme Court means that he is going to try different methods to use tariffs punitively to get his way over other countries. “Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to. BUYER BEWARE!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president wrote on Truth Social Monday morning. That’s not going to be reassuring to the U.S.’s international partners, even those who want to make a deal in good faith.