President Donald Trump set a two-month deadline for the European Union to implement a trade deal with the U.S., before he increases tariffs to “much higher levels.”
Trump doubled down on his threat to levy higher tariffs on the EU in a social media post on Thursday, as he continues to push European leaders to enact the terms of the trade accord reached in Scotland last year.
The president said he relayed a July 4th deadline for the agreement during a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“I agreed to give her until our Country’s 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels,” Trump said.
The call came after EU negotiators and member-state governments failed to agree on the terms of implementing the handshake deal agreed between Trump and von der Leyen last year, in which the EU agreed to remove tariffs on U.S. industrial goods and invest billions of dollars in U.S. energy and other industries in exchange for lower tariffs on its own products.
Trump became impatient with the EU not following through on its side of the agreement and threatened last week to raise tariffs to 25 percent on European automobiles.
The July 4th deadline falls only a couple of weeks before the expiration date for the temporary tariffs Trump installed after the Supreme Court ruled his initial use of widespread tariffs without congressional authorization was unlawful.
European officials have indicated they expect to reach an agreement to implement the deal by July, but U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder has said the U.S. may pull out of the deal if the Europeans can’t quickly agree on terms to enact the agreement.
