US President Donald Trump has threatened a sweeping 50% tariff on the European Union and a 25% levy on Apple Inc if the company fails to move its iPhone manufacturing to the US, reigniting investor fears about his trade agenda.
Trump said on Friday in a social media post that the higher charge on the EU would start on June 1 because “our discussions with them are going nowhere”, adding that he saw the bloc as “very difficult to deal with”.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said most countries have been negotiating trade deals in good faith, but that his boss believes the proposals made by the EU “have not been of good quality”.
Separately, Trump said that he had already told Apple that all iPhones sold in the US should be made in the US. He also criticised the company’s effort to move some production from China to India.
Apple has said most of its smartphones sold in the United States in the current quarter would originate from India.
Analysts have estimated that if an iPhone were manufactured entirely in the United States, it would have to sell for about $3,500, more than three times the current price.
The president’s messages represented a fresh round of trade brinkmanship, after indicating last week that he was looking to wind down talks with partners over the duties he announced on April 2, and then paused for 90 days to allow for negotiations.
Clock ticking
With that 90-day period half over and only a handful of deals reached so far, US officials have said countries that fail to reach agreements by July 9 will simply be assigned a tariff rate.
Trump’s latest posturing comes after the EU earlier this week shared a revived trade proposal with the US in a bid to jump-start talks. The European Union’s trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, was planning to hold a call with Jamieson Greer, his US counterpart, on Friday to take stock of negotiations, a European Commission spokesperson said before Trump’s post.
The new framework includes measures that take into account US interests, including international labour rights, environmental standards, economic security and gradually reducing tariffs to zero on both sides for non-sensitive agricultural products as well as industrial goods, according to people familiar with the matter.
It also outlined areas where the US and EU could cooperate, such as mutual investments and strategic procurement in energy, artificial intelligence and digital connectivity.
In any case, the EU plans to move forward with preparing countermeasures if negotiations fail to produce a satisfactory outcome.
The trade bloc has put together plans to hit €95 billion worth of US exports ($107 billion) with additional tariffs in response to Trump’s “reciprocal” levies and 25% tariffs on cars and some parts.