US President Donald Trump announced that he accepted to extend the deadline for the final decision on the imposition of new ones to 9 July 2025 50% duties against the European Union. The news was given on the social network Truth from Trump himself, who reported having granted the extension after a phone call with Ursula von der leyen.
The duties, initially scheduled for June 1st, were therefore postponed to the deadline proposed directly by the President of the European Commission. The Tycoon told journalists, before climbing the Air Force One, that the request for extension came during a “very friendly” telephone interview with Ursula von der Leyen.
The American president added that the respective negotiating teams will soon return to the table to look for a solution, suggesting that the open window may not last long.
Return duties deadline postponed: what changes
Trump’s gesture is part of a commercial iron arm that has been going on for months, and which seems more theatrical than technical. According to Wall Street Journalthe president would have been annoyed from the slowness of the negotiations with Brussels and the usual European attentiveness towards China.
A few days earlier he had already agitated the club: 50% duties on everything that comes from Europe. Trump paid everything on Truth as always by writing:
Our interviews with them are not going anywhere.
The commercial weight of the US-EU exchanges is remarkable: in 2024 the United States exported assets for 370.2 billion dollars to the European Union and imported about 605.8 billion, with a deficit of about 235.6 billion.
The introduction of such high rates would risk having Stagflation effects on the global economy. Several analysts observe that Trump’s strategy seems to use the threat of duties to frighten markets and commercial interlocutors, and then negotiate compromises (as already happened in the past with China).
Because Trump threatens new duties against Europe
In Europe the institutional reaction was caution. The EU Commission reiterated that in transatlantic relations it serves “mutual respect, not threats”. Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X that he had aExcellent phone call With Trump.
The EU and the United States share the most important and narrow commercial relations in the world. Europe is ready to carry on the talks quickly and decisively. To reach a good agreement, we need the time necessary until July 9th.
What markets and companies with the US-EU duties risk: the reactions after the announcement
On the financial level, the decision to postpone the duties had a positive impact on the markets. The US Futures on the US & P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 rose by about 1%, while the European EURO STOXX 50 index gained 1.6%, cosing part of the panic of the previous sessions.
The Asian bags also partially recovered ground, and the dollar has slightly weakened compared to the maximum of the end of 2023. The secretary of the treasure Scott Besent After all, he had admitted that Trump’s intimidation aimed to “put some fire under the EU”, and at least temporarily the markets seem to have positively interpreted the truce.
Trump Bluffa? The strategy of duties as a negotiating leverage
The postponement of the duties on 9 July feeds a widespread suspicion: that it is a calculated move, rather than a real intention of raising the rates. It would not be the first time that Trump shakes the spectrum of rates to move the needle of duties threats To then go to the negotiationsas we saw done immediately before agreements with the United Kingdom for example. The scheme is always the same: to threaten, generate tension in the markets and among the allies, then capitalize on the pressure to snatch concessions.
According to the inspire, it is a strategy already tested with China and, more recently, also with Mexico. The Nobel Prize James Heckman has defined this setting “a modern form of bilateral pressure”, where the economic content goes into the background with respect to themedia and political effect.
