EU warns of retaliation as Trump threatens 50% tariffs on European exports

There is no tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States.”

As he has said elsewhere, Trump went on to add

We do not need to go down this road. Negotiations are the best and only sustainable way forward.”

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin urged restraint, saying

It's time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game,

added the billionaire

Donald Trumppresident

Our discussions with [the EU] are going nowhere,

he said, before adding

We will not allow ourselves to be pressured and will objectively attempt to begin negotiations next week,

he said in comments reported by the German Die Welt newspaper

I have always been clear in my view that tariffs are damaging to all sides.”

He continued

I think he was hoping that by now we would have the E.U. coming with some kind of deal on the table and so far that hasn’t come,

he said, calling the 50% import tariffs a “shot at the bow.”

The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe,

he said

Donald Trumppresident

I’m not looking for a deal. We’ve set the deal. It’s at 50%."

He told reporters

It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product, otherwise it wouldn't be fair,

Trump told reporters,

Maroš ŠefčovičeU Trade Commissioner

The EU is fully engaged, committed to securing a deal that works for both,

he said

Donald Trumppresident

The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with, ... Our discussions with them are going nowhere!”

Mr. Trump wrote, adding

This all points to concerns about policy direction in the U.S. lacking credibility,

Mr. Shearing said, and

Maurice Obstfeldformer IMF chief economist

We’re playing for big stakes here,

Mr. Obstfeld said

No one was expecting this,

said Agathe Demarais, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations

Mark Blyththe same size economies,

How can you be ripping someone off, ... if you’re a third poorer than them?”

Mr. Blyth asked

Maurice Obstfeldformer IMF chief economist

We’ve already seen what’s happened with China, which is that he climbed down,

said Maurice Obstfeld, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund

One of the president’s big goals is to increase investment,

she said

What is somewhat of a surprise is the fact that the EU will now face a considerably higher tariff rate than China, an almost unthinkable scenario just a matter of weeks ago,

said Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter

I think such tariffs help no one, but would just lead to economic development in both markets suffering,

Wadephul said in Berlin