By DAN MCCALEB | THE CENTER SQUARE
President Donald Trump on Saturday said he will impose 30% tariffs on imported goods from the European Union and Mexico in his latest move to balance trade between the U.S. and other countries.
The tariffs are set to go into effect Aug. 1.
Saturday’s announcement comes a day after the U.S. Department of Treasury released a report Friday showing that tariff revenue helped revenue in the month of June exceed expenses by $27 billion.
“We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies, and Trade Barriers,” Trump wrote in the letter to the EU and posted on his Truth Social account. “Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”
The 30% tariff on EU goods is higher than expected. EU trade ministers are scheduled to meet Monday and could agree to increase tariffs on U.S. goods as retaliation.
In his letter to Mexico, Trump said the U.S. neighbor to the south has helped stem the flow of illegal narcotics and people from entering the country but added that it needed to do more to prevent North America from being a “Narco-Trafficking Playground.”
Earlier in the week, Trump announced new tariffs on several other countries, including 20% tariffs on imports from the Philippines; 25% on Brunei and Moldova; 30% on Algeria, Iraq and Libya; and 50% on Brazil.
All of the new tariffs announced this week are scheduled to go into effect Aug. 1.
I hope he didn’t mail the letters via USPS. They will probably arrive sometime during the next administration.
Fair Trade – not Free Trade.
Controlled Borders – not Open Borders.
Necessary Wars – not Endless Wars.
American Workers first (tariffs) – not Multi-National Corps.
Crazy how Trump has totally redefined the Republican party away from the Neo-Cons, RINO’s, and Progressives.
MAGA
MAHA
Gawd, what a disaster he is. Through extraordinary incompetence and low intelligence he has damaged every facet of the gem that used to be America.
Sure, Jan
You need a good cry
I know, total disaster.
They way taxpayers no longer hold responsibility for illegal aliens medical care. Disaster letting people spend their hard earned money on themselves instead.
And, balancing the trade imbalance with other nations, disaster. The way other nations dropped their tariffs against US goods, improving the US economy. Who wants that?
Cutting of grants for transgender awareness plays in countries the kill transgenders, I cannot imagine the disaster that causes.
And, let’s not forget setting Iran’s nuclear bomb program back a decade or more, or are you one of the uniformed that think Iran needed to locate their uranium enrichment facility hundreds of feed underground for peaceful reasons?
.
Even last week. Stopping a pot farm from enslaving children. Disaster across the board.
.
When I heard the US Treasury saw a surplus in June due to the tariffs, all I could think was disaster.
Bwaaaaaaaa, haaaaa, haaaaa. Snivel…!
It turns out all we needed was a new president
The last thing businesses need is some halfwit with half a dozen bankruptcies to his credit trying to micromanage who, and how, we do business with. Americans also don’t need or want higher inflation that is associated with the higher taxes Americans are going to have to pay through tariffs.
The halfwit should be focused on having a balanced budget without the US government dictating how we live our lives.
God I miss Reagan.
Inflation has been below 2.8% since President Trump took office. By month it was 2.8% in February, 2.4% in March, 2.3% in April and 2.4% in May, June will be out in a few days. If you don’t want the companies who pay tariffs to have to pay them then don’t purchase from them, that is your right as an American consumer. Tariffs also help promote job growth for your fellow Americans, assuming you care about such things.
Inflation will be rising as the tariffs work their way through the system. Why? Pretty basic Steve, tariffs force businesses to raise prices. I’ve owned a manufacturing company. Costs that a company has to pay to build a product are baked into the final price a consumer pays. If the government forces me to pay higher costs, guess what? Consumers pay more.
Trump is acting like the Democrat he has been for most of his life when he decides he, and he alone, knows best, and he will use his office to illegally dictate how a company operates.
Companies know what their customers want, and at what price they will lose customers. Americans want affordable prices. Taxes (tariffs) make those products less affordable.
In time the courts will rule against these illegal tariffs, and this nitwittery will stop.
Countless people with no real experience or experience blather on parroting the false narratives making specious claims about the farcical negative impacts of tariffs.
Please leave the challenging work to the grown-ups
A one time raising of prices on the part of importers is not the same thing as inflation. Setting tariff rates is not the same thing as dictating how businesses operate nor how you live your life.
No, its not directly the same thing as inflation, but it is inflationary. Look at a box of 12/2 romex- over $150.00 Why? About 44% of copper used in the USA is imported. Domestic mines can then charge way more for copper (price gouging) because imported copper- with high tariffs got more expensive.
That roll of 12/2 romex that used to cost less than $50 dollars is now three times the price.
But, hey, who cares? Well, anyone building a home for starters.
Trump is a halfwit. Watch the guy struggle trying to Sound coherent sometime- its embarrassing.
There aren’t many people building brand new homes on a daily, weekly, or annual basis. I’ve never lived in a brand new home and only ever purchased two over 3 decades. I get your point, but if you are trying to convince someone that tariffs drive inflation (they don’t) on a purchase made once every decade or two (also doesn’t drive inflation), then you aren’t doing a very good job at it.
There’s no doubt he can be embarrassing at times. Once you get past that, if you can, he’s also doing things that no President since Reagan has.
You may be missing the point Steve. I used only one example of how one commodity is vastly more expensive for one industry. (Home building). But copper is used everywhere- in cars, in computers, in cookware, etc. Multiply this usage over hundreds of thousands of transaction daily, and you have higher costs- and inflationary pressures. There are literally thousands of other materials we could look at…
Yep, and imports only account for a little over 10% of our economy so the end of the world is not nigh. All the “experts” who claimed the tariffs were immediately going to raise inflation were wrong. It’s honestly bordering upon absurd, just how wrong the pundit class is and how so many mindlessly repeat the talking points without thinking about what they are saying. Yep tariffs raise costs, they can also cause costs to drop over time, they can grow wealth and the spending power of your fellow Americans by leveling the markets that have been tilted against us and lead to offshoring of good paying jobs…but Trumps a halfwit a nitwit and embarrassing.
Americans have fully embraced the idea that they want low prices. Exhibit #1: Walmart.
Americans are not going to stand for workers who demand 30 to 50 dollars per hour when the same widget can be built off shore for guys making 2 dollars an hour.
Oh, and the tariffs are illegal. The courts will shut them down due to Trump violating the Constitution- art. 1.
You are completely unlearned
Maybe just keep your inane blather to yourself
I guess you missed the news.
The US Treasury saw a surplus in June due to the tariffs. Maybe the halfwit is not as stupid as you think.
Or more accurately, Americans saw an increase in their tax load due to tariffs.
Or more accurately, importers paid the tariffs on the goods they imported. If the importer didn’t swallow the cost of the tariff that was levied upon the good and passed that cost on to the consumer, one would be hard pressed to say that the consumer wasn’t advised of the increased cost and thus made an informed decision to take part in international trade.
That’s very slippery of you. One could also say that the consumer wouldn’t be forced to pay the increased costs if the tariff hadn’t been levied in the first place.
But, Reagan doesn’t miss you.
TACO! Trump always chickens out!
Try coming up with something original … or factual
Trumps knowledge of tariffs is bordering on negligible. For instance, he’s imposed a 35% tariff on Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world because he’s upset we have a trade deficit with them. We will ALWAYS have a trade deficit with them as they will never be able to buy as much from us as we do from them. His brain pan is collapsing before our very eyes and he makes Biden look like a Rhodes Scholar.
Your trying to be funny, yes?
No way anyone could be that misinformed intentionally.
Please tell me how I’m wrong and be specific.
You have yet to even attempt to substantiate your baseless assertions. Post that, and I will critique it to everyone’s benefit.
The burden is on you, chud.
The magnitude of the goods is not the issue.
The imbalance of the tariffs is.
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Why should we be OK with a country imposing up to a 74% tariff on our exports, while we impose essentially a zero tariff?
What’s w/ that same hand gesture again? No one uses that except politicos. Same thing from the clown on the peninsula and his handler a week or two back, same from Merkel and a few others but outside of that it’s strikingly uncommon.
Native. The one thing most Americans have in common is being misinformed intentionally. People have been fooled by the Fertilzation president and they WANT TO BE FOOLED. they seek out the weakest, least believable, most inane and sometimes flatly impossible explanations for political shenanigans.
You are one of them. You are critical in the advancement of Trump’s fuckery at the expense of your fellow citizens.
The Fertilization President?
You have to mean Biden. You know, the guy that claimed he had three masters degrees and graduated at the top of his class when in fact he only had one degree, and graduated in the lowest 5%? Or when he claimed he drove a semi truck for a living? Or… well, why waste my time. You are not going to listen anyway.