Trump re-escalates trade threats, aiming at Apple, EU
Trump roiled markets in early April after imposing tariffs on almost every inhabited locale around the world. That included a tax of about 145% on imported goods from China. Investors responded by furiously selling US assets, as the levies caused them to question the safe-haven status that America has long enjoyed, and while markets have recovered, business and consumer confidence has plunged in the US.
The shock response forced the White House to pause most tariffs until early July, leaving only in place a 10% tax on imports from other nations, but Trump held out the possibility of reviving certain levies. Friday's statements end that calm.
'I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the US will be manufactured and built in the US, not India or anyplace else,' Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
'If that is not the case, a tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the US.'
The White House has been in negotiations with numerous countries over trade issues, but progress has been unsteady. Finance leaders from the G7 industrialised democracies tried to downplay disputes over the tariffs earlier in the week at a forum in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
The EU Commission on Friday declined to comment on Trump's recommendation to put a 50% tariff on goods from the EU from June 1, saying it would wait for a phone call between EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic and his US counterpart Jamieson Greer to take place on Friday afternoon (5pm, SA time).
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