politics
Trump Imposes 25% Tariffs on EU Vehicles; Nebraska Approves Medicaid Work Requirements
President Trump announced an increase in tariffs on cars and lorries imported from the European Union to 25% from 15%, effective next week, accusing the bloc of non-compliance with a deal struck last summer. Separately, Nebraska became the first state to enact work requirements for Medicaid recipients under Trump's tax and spending bill passed last summer. The actions reflect ongoing U.S.
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President Trump announced late on Friday that he will increase tariffs on cars and lorries imported into the United States from the European Union to 25% from the current 15%, effective next week. He accused the EU of non-compliance with the full agreed-to trade deal.
The announcement came via a post on Truth Social, where Trump stated that many automobile and truck plants are currently under construction with 100 billion dollars being invested, describing it as a record in the history of car and truck manufacturing, and noting that these plants, staffed with American workers, will be opening soon.
Vehicles made in the US by EU companies are exempt from the tariff increase. A. The current 15% tariff level was set under a deal negotiated last July at Trump's Turnberry golf course in Scotland, which reduced tariffs on EU cars to 15% from a proposed 50%.
That agreement marked a reprieve from the 30% tariffs Trump had threatened as part of his Liberation Day tariffs, imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. In exchange, the EU agreed to buy $750 billion of energy from the US and make $600 billion in investment in the US, though 50% tariffs on steel continued.
Following heavy lobbying from the EU, German car manufacturers, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump agreed to include cars in the 15% baseline tariff rate.
The tax on cars was imposed under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. Cars from the EU were facing tariffs of 50% on exports to the US before the deal. The European Parliament voted at the end of March to progress the deal, but it has not been formally signed off in the trilogue process involving the European Commission, the European Council, and the parliament.
The European Parliament twice paused the formal process of ratifying the deal, formally suspending it in January in protest at Trump’s threat to take over Greenland from Denmark, and pausing the voting procedure in February following an adverse US Supreme Court ruling.
