Donald Trump continues his vast offensive against the trade partners of the United States. The American president announced on Tuesday, February 18, that he could establish important customs duties in April on April imported cars, but also on semiconductors and the pharmaceutical sector, causing first cautious reactions in Asia.
Since his inauguration at the end of January, the President of the United States has made customs duties the main tool of his policy of reducing the important American trade deficit, imposing them on all its partners on steel and imported aluminum And by announcing the establishment of reciprocal customs duties.
He now attacks three strategic manufacturing sectors, for which he had already said that they would no doubt be subject to customs duties. Questioned Tuesday at a press conference in Mar-A-Lago (Florida) about what he provided for the automotive sector, he replied: “I will probably tell you that on April 2, but it will be around 25 %”. Then asked about semiconductors and the pharmaceutical industry, he replied: “It will be 25 % and more, and it will increase considerably during a year”.
“Give a chance” to business partners
In any case, Donald Trump insisted that Washington’s business partners could avoid being taxed by investing in factories in the United States. “We want to give them time to arrive […] We want to give them a chance “to establish their factories in the United States to avoid customs duties.
This has caused cautious reactions to Asia, where some of the main suppliers of these goods, such as Taiwan, South Korea or Japan, are also completely dependent on American protection for their security vis-à-vis their potentially aggressive neighbors .
“The perimeter of the products subject to customs duties has not yet been clarified. We will continue to monitor and support the Taiwanese industries,” reacted in a statement the Ministry of the Economy of the island, under high military pressure Chinese. “With regard to customs duties on cars, we have raised the issue to the United States government,” said Yoshimasa Hayashi, government spokesperson.
Given “the importance of the Japanese automotive industry”, Tokyo “will first take appropriate measures while carefully examining the specific details of the measures”. After the new steel taxes, South Korea, which is protected by the American nuclear umbrella while its neighbor of the North strengthens its nuclear capacities, said it wished to “build a local relationship” with the Trump administration.
Satisfaction
The 47th President of the United States welcomed Tuesday evening to see the first effects of its policy. “I have been contacted by some of the largest companies in the world, and thanks to what we do with customs duties and incentives, they want to return to the United States and we will announce that very large companies will return,” -So he said.
He also satisfied to have seen the countries of the European Union “reduce their customs duties on cars at the level we have”. “The EU had a 10 % tax on cars and they are now 2.5 %, which is exactly the same level as us,” he said. But however, if it “takes note of what has been done”, the American president believes that “the EU has been very unfair” with the United States. “We have a 350 billion dollars trade deficit, they do not buy our cars, our agricultural products, they buy almost nothing, we have to rectify this,” he complained.
According to data from the Commerce Department, the United States trade deficit in goods vis-à-vis the EU was 235 billion dollars in 2024. On the other hand, the United States has an excess trade in concerns services. The European Commissioner in charge of Trade and Economic Safety, Maros Sefcovic, arrived in Washington on Tuesday for a two -day visit and will notably meet Howard Lungick, the Secretary of Commerce designated by Donald Trump, as well as Jamieson Greer, the representative of The White House in charge of commercial relations (USTR).