WASHINGTON – In a Thursday post on social media, former U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a new ultimatum to the European Union, setting a July 4 deadline for the 27-nation bloc to formalize approval of a bilateral trade framework struck last year — or face steeply elevated tariff rates on goods imported into the United States.
The new announcement marks a shift from Trump’s prior hardline position: just last Friday, he warned that a 25% punitive tariff on European automobiles would go into effect as early as this week. The revised timeline followed what Trump called a “great call” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, prompting him to extend the negotiating window by roughly two months.
Despite the extension, Trump made clear his frustration with the European Parliament’s slow progress in ratifying the agreement, which has already been upended by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from February. In that decision, the high court found that Trump lacked legal authority to invoke a national economic emergency to put the initial pressure tariffs in place — the tariffs that launched the current round of negotiations in the first place.
“A promise was made that the EU would deliver their side of the Deal and, as per Agreement, cut their Tariffs to ZERO!” Trump wrote in his social media post. “I agreed to give her until our Country’s 250th Birthday or, unfortunately, their Tariffs would immediately jump to much higher levels.” The U.S. will celebrate the 250th anniversary of its declaration of independence on July 4 this year.
Trump’s post left a key detail ambiguous: it did not specify whether the tariff hike would apply to all EU exports to the U.S., or would be limited to the auto sector that has been the central focus of trade tensions in this round. Most policy analysts read the extension as a partial retreat from Trump’s earlier immediate threat, granting European legislators extra weeks to complete the ratification process.
Under the original terms of the 2023 trade framework, the U.S. was set to impose a 15% tariff on the vast majority of imports from EU member states. But following the Supreme Court’s ruling stripping the administration of authority for the original emergency tariffs, the White House has currently levied a 10% tariff while it conducts new probes into bilateral trade imbalances and national security implications of EU imports. The administration plans to implement new, legally sound tariffs to recover the revenue lost from the lower current rate.