The Trump Europe tariffs came quickly, but a delay apparently came just as quickly. Apparently, the delay came after a phone call.
Late last week, Trump threatened the EU with a 50% tariff. In typical toddler fashion, Trump whined about how talks were ‘going nowhere’ and that he was imposing those tariffs. Understandably, that sparked a slide in the markets as some traders were in the “here we go again” mode for what felt like another impending crash in the markets. The threats were tied with additional threats to tariff Apple 25% with future possible tariffs against other smartphone makers like Samsung. Questions were raised as to whether or not Trump can legally impose tariffs against a single company.
Then, today came the surprise announcement that he is backing off – at least temporarily – from the Europe tariffs. From CTV:
U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that the U.S. will delay implementation of a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union from June 1 until July 9 to buy time for negotiations with the bloc.
So, essentially, the tariffs were delayed by just over a week and one month.
Now, one of the rules that some know about Trump is that if you are the last person to speak with Trump, you have a much better chance of being heard. This thanks to what appears to be memory problems with Trump. That appears to be the case here:
That agreement came after a call Sunday with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who had told Trump that she “wants to get down to serious negotiations,” according to the U.S. president’s retelling.
As word of the delay started making the rounds, it seems that some outlets were misleading people into thinking that the EU tariffs were off completely. For instance, the CBC ran a story with the headline “Trump drops tariff threat against EU after weekend call with bloc chief“. The problem is that the tariffs weren’t actually dropped entirely, just delayed. The article, in the second paragraph, weirdly words the situation as “restoring” the July 9 deadline. I don’t understand the wording as it is far too easy to get the wrong impression. I mean, I would see the headline and assume that the tariffs are off completely, but they aren’t really off completely as of right now. Still, for those who have watched the CBC for some time, you’ll know that reporting on Trump has been very confused for months now, so this latest confused headline isn’t actually all that surprising in the grand scheme of things.
While this does serve as a reprieve for now, we aren’t out of the latest tariff woods yet. The Apple tariffs appear to still be a thing and nothing has changed from the threat of tariffing other smartphone makers as well. What’s more, it’s entirely possible Trump could find himself on the proverbial golden toilet and randomly think of something else to tariff – posting his “grand” idea on social media after. I say that because it has happened before.
At any rate, the DOW futures rose on word of the delay. As of this writing, the futures are up by around 450 points. So, that’s something. I mean, hooray, the current awful economic situation isn’t going to be even worse for now… for what it’s worth.
