Washington, Feb 13 (EFE).- United States President Donald Trump signed on Thursday a memorandum imposing “reciprocal tariffs” on countries that tax US products, with the European Union as one of the worst hit.
“I’ve decided for purposes of fairness that I will charge a reciprocal tariff,” Trump said in the Oval Office at the proclamation g.
“It’s fair to all. No other country can complain,” he added.
The new tariffs will take effect in a matter of “weeks” or “a few months,” and the first to be penalized will be those with a larger trade deficit with the US, a senior official explained.
“For many years the United States has been treated unfairly by trading partners, both friend and foe,” the president said in the memorandum.
“This lack of reciprocity is one source of our country’s large and persistent annual trade deficits in goods,” he added.
The document signed by Trump focuses on two issues: tariffs imposed by other countries on US exports and non-tariff barriers, such as regulations and currency exchange fees.
Each country will face customized tariffs based on the tariffs and trade “barriers” each nation imposes on the US.
The president was particularly critical of the European Union, which he accused of being “absolutely brutal” and imposing what he described as a hidden tariff through value-added taxes (VAT) that range from 17% in Luxembourg to 27% in Hungary.
The US imported about 600 billion dollars worth of goods from EU member states in 2024, with the most products by category and dollar value coming from the pharmaceutical industry, according to US Trade Census data analyzed by ImportGenius.
Among those products were 127 billion dollars worth of imports of semaglutide, an ingredient used in popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, which have boomed in the US.
The pharmaceutical and medical industry will experience one of the most significant tariff impacts by sector.
As a senior official told EFE before Trump signed the memorandum, the European automotive sector could also face a significant increase in tariffs, from the 2.5% Washington currently imposes on imported vehicles to as much as 27%.
The EU imposes a 10% tariff on imported cars, plus the EU value-added tax, at least 17%. Therefore, under the new policy, the US would impose an equivalent tariff, adding a 10% tariff and the corresponding VAT percentage.
The details of the tariffs in the executive order were deliberately open, as Washington’s intention is for each country to renegotiate, according to the official.
However, critics of Trump’s tariff policy have warned that it could easily backfire, pushing inflation, which rose to 3% in the US in January, and slowing growth.
Trump, however, has doubled down in recent weeks, using tariffs as a bargaining chip to extract concessions not only on trade but also on migration and security, with the expectation of forcing each country to sit down and negotiate directly with the United States. EFE
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