Donald Trump says the United States “will not be mistreated” and promises to “reply” EU taxes

Donald Trump again justified on Wednesday March 12, his use of customs duties, ensuring that the United States “Will not be mistreated” by their business partners. While Washington has taxed, since midnight, the steel and aluminum entering the country at 25 %, the American president also recalled that the customs taxes called “Converse” must come into force on April 2, and judged in passing that they could be “A little more than reciprocal”.

For its part, the European Commission reported that it would tax a series of American products ranging from boats to Bourbon via motorcycles, from 1^er april. The European Union (EU) “Deeply regret” The measures decided by Mr. Trump, said the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, believing that the European replica was “Strong but proportionate”. EU “Responds firmly” but “Does not want to cause climbing”in order to “Solving problems and [de] Continue to work together as [de] good partners “said Antonio Costa, president of the European Council.

Asked that he could react to Brussels’s decision, the American president answered “Of course we will reply”accusing Europe again of having “Been created to take advantage of the United States. They take advantage of the United States. »»

“We will not stay in the cross arms”

Canada will impose new customs duties on Thursday on certain American products to respond to those “Unjustified and unreasonable” imposed by the United States. Canadian Minister of Finance, Dominic Leblanc, announced 25 % customs taxes on nearly 30 billion Canadian dollars (18 billion euros) of American imports, in particular sports equipment, cast iron products or computers. “We will not stay in crossed arms while our emblematic industries of steel and aluminum are unjustly targeted”he assured.

Canada, the United States’s leading supplier for steel and aluminum, is particularly in the viewfinder of Mr. Trump, who planned Tuesday to double these customs duties against Ottawa, before changing his mind. But the American president also warned that “Canada D[evait] Immediately drop its American antifermers taxes from 250 % to 390 % on various American dairy products ”adding that if Ottawa would not obtain, Washington would impose on April 2 of such customs taxes on cars that this “Will definitively stop the automotive industry in Canada”.

“An existential threat to our country”

The new Canadian measures are added to customs duties of 25 % set up for $ 30 billion Canadian dollars of American products since March in response to the first series of commercial taxes on Canadian products.

“It is not only a threat to Canadian jobs, it is not only a threat to the many families who live in these jobs, it is an existential threat to our country”said Mélanie Joly, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday. “We will fight for what we are as a country, because it is not only about the economy, it is the future of our country”she added.

The future Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney also said he was ready to speak directly with Trump trade relations between the two countries. “We will all be better when the largest economic and security partnership in the world will be renewed and relaunched”also underlined Mr. Carney.