by Philip Blenkinsop, David Lawder and Stephanie Van den Berg

Brussels/Banff, Canada/La Haye (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump has brandished new threats to customs duties on Friday by targeting the European Union, targeted by a surcharge of 50% on its products exported to the United States from June 1, and on Apple and its iPhone manufactured abroad.

In a message on his Truth Social network, the head of the White House deplored that commercial negotiations are “very difficult” with Europeans.

“Our discussions with them are going nowhere,” he said, reaffirming that the European Union was mainly founded to “enjoy” the United States.

“Consequently, I recommend direct customs duties of 50% on the European Union as of June 1, 2025. There will be no customs rights if the product is built or manufactured in the United States,” he added.

The European Commission did not wish to comment pending a telephone interview provided during the day between the European Commerce Commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, and its American counterpart Jamieson Greer.

Polish trade minister Michal Baranowski, whose country currently occupies the rotating presidency of the EU Council, minimized the threat by placing it in the context of the negotiations in progress.

“Some are negotiating behind closed doors, others more in front of the cameras,” he told journalists. “The fact that important statements fall into the public domain does not mean that they will translate into deeds.”

“We have until early July to carry out these negotiations and to my knowledge, these negotiations are advancing,” he said, adding that Maros Sefcovic and Jamieson Greer were to meet in Paris in early June.

Recoles markets

The EU is currently subject to American customs duties of 25% on steel, aluminum and cars, as well as “reciprocal” customs duties of 10% on almost all the other products, rights which could reach 20% at the expiration of the 90-day period on July 8.

The European Commission has repeatedly repeated that it favored a negotiated solution, but that a response should be ready by July in the event of failure of talks.

Speaking later in the oval office, Donald Trump said that he “did not look for an agreement” with the EU, in response to a question on the hypothesis of a compromise before June 1.

The stock markets plunged in the wake of the American president’s statements with the return of the risk of trade war. The actions of the luxury sector (LVMH, Hermès, Kering) suffered in Paris, as well as car manufacturers in Germany.

“It has been a long time since I informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expected that the iPhone that will be sold in the United States of America are manufactured and built in the United States, not in India or elsewhere,” also wrote Donald Trump on Truth Social.

“If this is not the case, Apple will have to pay customs duties of at least 25% in the United States,” he added.

He subsequently specified that his threat concerned all manufacturers of smartphones, including the South Korean Samsung.

Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policy had already caused a massive sale of American assets in early April, when the American president announced “reciprocal” customs duties against most countries in the world.

The chief of the White House had then been forced to retreat by announcing a suspension of most of these surcharges for a period of 90 days, in order to give way to negotiation, which allowed Wall Street to erase his losses, even if few discussions have resulted in the right.

(Akash Sriram, with Brendan O’Brien and Jan Strupczewski, Nicolas Delame, Sophie Louet and Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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