Trump on potential EU food imports ban: ‘Let them do it’
By: Sarah Fortinsky (The Hill)
A bit of journalistic malpractice. Europeans are floating the idea of banning imports that do not comply with the same standards domestic producers must meet. The tariffs may have provided an opportunity to push this idea but the bans are really about compliance and not about tariffs.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Trump on Sunday brushed off reporting that the European Union might respond to his “reciprocal” tariff policy by moving to block imports of certain American food products.
“That’s all right. I don’t mind. Let them do it. Let them do it,” Trump told reporters.
“They’re just hurting themselves if they do that,” he continued. “I can’t imagine it, but it doesn’t matter.”
The European Commission will agree next week to explore greater import limits on certain U.S. food items made to different standards, the Financial Times reported Sunday, citing three unidentified officials.
Initial targets of the import ban could reportedly include soybean crops grown in the U.S., which allow for certain pesticides that EU farmers are not allowed to use.
“We have very clear signals from the parliament, very clear signals also from the member states and from our farmers: whatever is banned in the EU, it should be banned in the EU, even if it is an imported product,” European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Olivér Várhelyi told the Financial Times in an interview last month.
Trump last week signed a presidential memorandum proposing reciprocal tariffs that he maintains would crack down on unfair and discriminatory tariffs from both adversaries and allies.
The tariffs were not immediately imposed, but the signing of the memo allows his administration to begin a review process to get them started. The reciprocal tariffs would be customized for each foreign trading partner, based on five different areas: tariffs the nation imposes on U.S. products, unfair taxes imposed, cost to U.S. businesses and consumers from another country’s policies, exchange rates, and any other practices the trade representative’s office determines is unfair.
White House officials said Trump wants to move rapidly on imposing the tariffs, suggesting it would be “weeks” and no longer than “a few months” until they are in place.
Trump defended the reciprocal tariff policy in his remarks to reporters Sunday.
“We’re having reciprocal tariffs. Whatever they charge, we charge. It’s very simple. If a certain country — like India, which is very high tariff — if they charge us X dollars, we charge them X dollars,” Trump said.
“It’s a fair thing to do,” he added. “Even the media said it was fair, and it’s going to be very good for the United States.”
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What's wrong with requiring imported goods to comply with standards and regulations imposed on domestic producers? Wouldn't that be fair?