Trump's tariff threat risks a trade war with Europe years in the making

The E.U. has pushed back against President Trump’s latest threat to impose a 50% import tariff on all E.U. goods, warning trade must be built on “respect."

The European Union has pushed back against President Donald Trump’s latest suggestion that he will impose a 50% import tariff on all E.U. goods, warning that trans-Atlantic trade must be built on “respect, not threats.”

The rebuke came after Trump said in a Friday post on his Truth Social platform that trade negotiations with Brussels were “going nowhere” and suggested he would slap a 50% blanket duty on all European goods entering the U.S. starting June 1.

But on Sunday, Trump announced that the new date for the tariff to go into effect would be July 9, after he said Ursula Von Der Leyden — president of the European Commission — called him and requested he push back the date.

It was just the latest bellicose remark from Trump and came amid a broader souring of relations between the two global powers that has seen months of distrust and economic sparring.

The E.U., home to nearly 450 million people, is the world’s largest trading bloc and one of Washington’s top commercial partners. It exported more than $600 billion in goods to the U.S. last year while importing goods worth around $370 billion.