On May 23rd local time, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on his own social media platform "Truth Social", suggesting a 50% tariff on EU products starting from June 1st, 2025. Trump also criticized the EU, saying that its main purpose was to take advantage of the United States.

Trump wrote, "The EU - an organization established mainly to take advantage of the United States in trade - has always been very difficult to deal with. They have set up strong trade barriers, levied value-added tax, absurd corporate fines, non-monetary trade barriers, currency manipulation, unfair and unreasonable litigation against American companies, etc..."

Trump also stated that there had been no progress in negotiations between the U.S. and the EU, so he suggested imposing a direct 50% tariff on EU products starting from June 1st, 2025. Products made or produced in the U.S. would not be subject to tariffs.

After Trump issued the threat, the three major U.S. stock index futures fell simultaneously. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 1.54%, the S&P 500 Index futures fell by 1.61%, and the Nasdaq futures fell by 1.98%. It is worth noting that Apple's U.S. shares plummeted before the market opened, falling nearly 4%. Previously, Trump said that if Apple does not produce its iPhones in the U.S., he will impose at least a 25% tariff on its products. In addition, the main European stock indexes also fell across the board. Germany's DAX index fell by 2.87%, France's CAC 40 index fell by 3.03%, and the UK's FTSE 100 index fell by 1.42%.

Before Trump made this statement, the EU had just submitted a new trade proposal, but it seemed that this did not satisfy Trump.

On May 21st local time, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that in order to promote trade negotiations with the Trump administration, the EU recently submitted a revised trade proposal to the U.S. side, which included several items of interest to the U.S. Both sides will continue to discuss the proposal and plan to hold a political-level meeting next month.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the contents of the new proposal include clauses on international labor rights, environmental standards, economic security, gradually eliminating tariffs on non-sensitive agricultural products and industrial products between both sides to zero, as well as joint investments and strategic procurement cooperation in energy, artificial intelligence, and digital interconnection. In addition, the proposal also involves food and agricultural standards, mutual recognition agreements, public procurement, digital trade, and discussions on rules for the origin of goods to safeguard common interests. Sources also said that the proposal document reserved space for more specific cooperation in procurement and investment.

Bloomberg News reported that the latest proposal put forward by the European Commission this time is a response to the U.S. side's proposal. Earlier this week, this revised proposal was delivered to Washington officials. An EU official described the file submitted by the U.S. side to the media as a "list of unrealistic demands," but the official did not reveal the具体内容 of the file.

However, previous signs have indicated that the U.S. side seems not to be satisfied with the EU's proposal. U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo told Axios News Network in an interview on May 21st that some trade negotiations have proven to be "impossible." "Like the EU - (negotiations) are very difficult, Germany wants to reach an agreement, but they are not allowed to," Raimondo said.

Meanwhile, the EU is already preparing countermeasures in case the negotiations fail to yield satisfactory results. Bloomberg previously reported, citing sources, that if the negotiations fail to achieve a satisfactory result, the EU has formulated a plan to impose additional tariffs on $95 billion (approximately $107 billion) of U.S. exports in response to Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs and impose a 25% tariff on cars and certain parts.

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Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7507620438218900009/

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