WASHINGTON, May 2 — President Donald Trump said yesterday that he will hike US tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union next week, charging that the bloc is not complying with an earlier trade deal.

The pact, which was struck last summer, had capped the US tariff on EU autos and parts at 15 per cent, which is lower than the 25-per cent duty that Trump imposed on many other trading partners.

These sector-specific duties were not affected by a Supreme Court ruling earlier in the year that struck down a swath of Trump’s global levies.

But the US leader said yesterday: “Based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States.”

“The Tariff will be increased to 25 per cent,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

He told a Florida event later Friday that Washington had informed Germany of his threat because “they and other European nations have not adhered to our trade deal.”

He accused German automakers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW of ripping off Americans.

Trump’s announcement came a day after his renewed criticism of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump told Merz to focus on ending the Ukraine war instead of “interfering” on Iran.

Germany would likely be hit hard by a sharp vehicle tariff, as it is responsible for a significant amount of EU auto exports.

Reacting to the announcement, a European Commission spokesperson told AFP: “Should the US take measures inconsistent with the joint statement, we will keep our options open to protect EU interests.”

The spokesperson added that the bloc is implementing its commitments “in line with standard legislative practice” and keeping the Trump administration updated during this process.

Last July, the EU had laid the groundwork for possible retaliation if talks with Washington fell through—preparing a list of US goods that could be targeted.

‘Light a fire’ 

“President Trump has clearly lost patience with EU efforts to implement its commitments under the bilateral trade deal concluded months ago,” former US trade official Wendy Cutler told AFP.

She said Trump appeared to be “hoping to light a fire under Brussels to accelerate its domestic procedures.”

His threats to the EU are reminiscent of a similar move against South Korea months ago, added Cutler, who is now senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

In late March, EU lawmakers gave their green light to the bloc’s tariff deal with Trump, but with conditions.

A large majority of EU lawmakers agreed to cut EU tariffs on some US imports, as a first step towards implementing the 2025 deal, but they also sought additional safeguards.

Although the European Parliament has given its conditional approval to the EU-US trade pact, before the deal is implemented by the bloc, it still needs to be negotiated with EU states.

The new threat on European cars “explain why many small businesses expect to be cautious” with Trump’s tariffs, said Dan Anthony, who heads “We Pay the Tariffs,” a coalition of nearly 1,200 small businesses.

“You never know what might trigger the next tariff threat,” Anthony added in a statement.

In April, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic was in Washington to meet with counterparts including US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and trade envoy Jamieson Greer.

At the time, he said the EU was also seeking more progress in easing the effects of still-steep US steel tariffs, adding that talks were going in a positive direction.

The United States is the second largest market for new EU vehicle exports, after the United Kingdom, according to a 2025 fact sheet by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

Over a fifth of EU vehicle exports went to the United States.

Germany alone exported some 450,000 vehicles to the United States in 2024, according to the VDA industry group. But that figure has since slipped. — AFP

US president says tariff on vehicles imported from EU will rise to 25% and accuses bloc of non-compliance

Donald Trump has said he is tearing up part of the tariff deal he struck with EU leaders at his golf course in Scotland last summer, criticising Brussels for taking so long to ratify the deal.

Blindsiding Brussels late on Friday, a public holiday in much of Europe, he announced that he would be increasing tariffs on cars and lorries imported into the US from the EU from 15% to 25% from next week.

BRUSSELS, May 1 — The European Union and South American bloc Mercosur will today implement a contentious free trade agreement that the EU in particular hopes will benefit exporters and calm critics, even if it cannot fully offset the blow from US tariffs.

Backers including Germany and Spain say the agreement will help compensate for the hit from ‌US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and reduce reliance on China for critical minerals. France and other critics argue it will increase imports of cheap beef and sugar and undercut domestic farmers, and environmentalists say it will increase rainforest destruction.

Either way, economists caution that the economic gains from this pact and others concluded in recent months by the EU will be modest and are unlikely to fully make up for lost US trade.

The European Parliament, whose approval is required, voted in January to challenge the agreement in the EU’s top court, which could take up to two years to rule, but the European Commission decided to provisionally apply the deal from May 1.

Supporters hope the EU’s largest ever agreement in terms of tariff reductions, which took 25 years to negotiate, will swiftly benefit EU exporters so that when the EU assembly does vote, perhaps in two years’ time, the advantages will be clear.

Trump prompts trade deal dash

Alongside Mercosur, the EU has rushed to conclude trade agreements with India, Indonesia, Australia and Mexico since Trump’s re-election.

The accords help to shore ‌up free trade at a time when Trump’s tariffs and Chinese export curbs on critical minerals undermine a rules-based global order.

The European bloc is also ⁠hoping the agreements will help offset a decline in exports to the United ⁠States of 15 per cent or more and a hit to GDP of some 0.3 per cent this year alone.

However, Carsten ⁠Brzeski, global head of Macro at ING Research, ⁠said it was hard to see ⁠the new trade relationships replacing the United States.

“Put simply, GDP per capita in the US is by far larger than in these new trading partners,” he said.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva shows the signed decree enacting the Trade Agreement between the European Union and Mercosur at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia April 28, 2026. — AFP pic

The European Commission has estimated the Mercosur agreement will boost EU GDP by 0.05 per cent in 2040, while the India agreement, which the EU has dubbed the “mother ⁠of all deals”, could add 0.1 per cent to GDP, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Those benefits are also at least a decade away, when the deals are fully implemented, whereas pain from Trump’s tariffs has been immediate.

China already there

EU companies will also face fierce competition in these markets, where Chinese rivals have been steadily building a presence for two decades.

“The elephant in the room is China,” said Lucrezia Reichlin, professor of economics at the London Business School.

“And this is not just about tariffs. If you look at what China has done in Asia and in Africa, it has been about investment ⁠and the energy transition, too.”

Maximiliano Mendez-Parra, principal research fellow at ODI Global, said much had changed since he co-authored a report for the European Commission in December 2020 that forecast a 0.1 per cent increase in EU GDP from the EU-Mercosur deal. Since then China has ramped ⁠up sales of vehicles and machinery, items that the EU wants to export, Mendez-Parra said.

Tariff reductions should help EU companies compete more effectively against often low prices ⁠of Chinese goods, ⁠but the challenges are increasing.

China has already begun the task of offsetting US tariffs, reporting a record trade surplus of nearly US$1.2 trillion in 2025, led by booming exports to non-US markets.

Global Trade Alert estimated that US tariffs led to some US$150 billion of Chinese exports being redirected, with Asean countries absorbing more than US$70 billion of extra Chinese goods, and ‌sharp increases, too, for Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and the Gulf.

So, while the EU’s trade accords should help, the EU will not offset lost US exports without looking internally. Some 60 per cent of EU exports are from one EU country to another and a more efficient and competitive single market could easily compensate. — Reuters

UK was close behind, exporting 675,000 tonnes, with much of the waste sent to Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia

Germany was the world’s largest exporter of plastic waste in 2025 and sent more than 810,000 tonnes abroad, according to analysis of trade data carried out for the Guardian.

The UK followed close behind, according to the analysis by Watershed Investigations and the Basel Action Network. It exported more than 675,000 tonnes, its highest level in eight years and enough to fill about 127,000 shipping containers.

US president uses social media post to criticise chancellor over Ukraine, immigration and ‘interfering’ in Iran conflict

The Commission was also asked about yesterday’s meeting of Hungary’s incoming prime minister, Péter Magyar.

But we didn’t get much more than what we saw in yesterday’s social media posts from Magyar and the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen.

Some travellers spent hours in lines at airport, with kiosks not working, little seating and few staff on hand to help

Some travellers passing through the new EU entry-exit system (EES) have faced huge delays at border checks, with some waiting for up to three hours, airports say.

The new rules have gradually been introduced in Europe since October 2025, and came into effect on Friday in the Schengen countries – 25 of the EU’s 27 states plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: After she met with foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast ‌Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei on April 28 (Tuesday), Kaja Kallas, the foreign policy chief from the European Union, called for partners in the region not to look to Russia for their supply of oil, as this would allow Russia to continue its war against Ukraine.

Netizens commenting on Ms Kallas’ remarks have characterised the call as “removed from reality.”

Asia continues to be the hardest hit by the war in the Middle East, which began on Feb 28 when the United States and Israel started bombing Iran. This led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint over which 20% of the world’s fuel needs transits, resulting in a global energy crisis.

Because Asia, especially Southeast Asia, is heavily dependent on the Middle East for its energy supply, its governments have been scrambling to secure fuel for their domestic needs, paying more for oil as prices have soared. 

The US temporarily halted sanctions on Russian oil that is already at sea. It did this initially for India in the first week of March, but the easing of sanctions has spread. From March 12 to April 11, countries were allowed to buy oil from Russia. 

Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam have since shown interest in buying oil from Russia.

Russia has also reportedly offered liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments to Asian countries at a 40% discount.

Ms Kallas urged Southeast Asia to see the “big picture” concerning the war in Ukraine, according to a Reuters report. 

“You have an energy crisis, and you need to have supplies. On the other hand, you have to see the big picture, which is that… if you buy Russian oil, they are able to continue with this war,” the report quotes her as saying.

Earlier this month, new sanctions were approved by the EU that included more oil trade restrictions designed to affect Russia’s funding of its attack on Ukraine, which began in February 2022. Ms Kallas pointed out that the war in the Middle East has been to Russia’s advantage because of the oil shortage, and asked for ASEAN to cooperate with the EU’s sanctions on Russia.

She also noted that buying oil from Russia is helping to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, though the diplomat did not elaborate further.

Ms Kallas’ remarks did not land well with netizens, with one asking, “What suggestions did Kalas make to relieve the South East Asian countries?” 

“Will the EU compensate ASEAN for the shortfall?” wondered another.

Others called the EU “unrealistic” and “entitled,” adding that the bloc should mind its own business.

“Yes, barrels of oil can also be harvested from banana trees,” one wrote sarcastically, adding, “The world is coping with a 15% reduction in global crude oil output due to the ME crisis. And this woman thinks that nations around the world should also forego buying Russian exports that make up about 5% of global supplies?”/TISG

Read also: War in Iran leaves Southeast Asia scrambling for oil from Russia

This article (Netizens call out top EU diplomat for asking Southeast Asia not to ‌buy Russian oil amid Iran war) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.

Fishing companies can also access subsidies in loosening of state aid rules to cover fuel and fertiliser price rises

The EU is to subsidise up to 70% of the extra cost of fuel and fertilisers caused by the Iran war for farmers, fishing businesses and road hauliers as part of a package of emergency measures.

Individual companies can claim up to €50,000 each between now and the end of the year with minimum paperwork, a measure the EU hopes will remove what it sees as an existential threat to hauliers and farmers.

Ursula von der Leyen later due to meet new Hungarian leader who is seeking to unlock EU funds in return for reforms

AFP is reporting that so far, officials in Brussels are hopeful that Péter Magyar – who once served under Viktor Orbán, before turning on his former boss – will genuinely launch a new chapter in ties.

But wary of celebrating too soon, they insist they need to see concrete moves and not just kind words.

“A huge mandate, a strong mandate, a great responsibility!

We know our task: we will bring home the EU funds that Hungarians are entitled to. More soon.”