Trump announces 30% tariffs on EU products

The measure, announced in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, will have a significant impact on key export sectors such as Spanish cured ham.

Santiago Martín, president of Embutidos Fermín, one of the most well-known Spanish companies in the US market , told Cárnica that a tariff of this size “would have a very negative impact on sales in the US.” To minimize this impact, the ham company plans to pass on some of the increased costs to distributors and absorb the rest from its own margins.

“We will do everything we can to ensure that prices for consumers do not rise by more than 15 to 20 percent,” says Martin. However, he warns of the high costs to businesses that this measure will entail: “The duty could be $150,000 per container, which is a significant outflow of funds, in addition to the damage caused by the rising exchange rate.”

While Fermin is confident that some agreement will be reached between the EU and the US to soften the measure before August, he expresses doubts about this "due to the problems that arose at the recent NATO summit."

For its part, the Spanish Federation of Food and Processing Industries (FIAB) expressed “deep concern” over Trump’s statement and called on Spanish and European authorities “to continue negotiations to prevent the tariffs from coming into force.”

"We call for firmness and proportionality if we have to face tariffs that we consider unfair, as happened in the case of the dispute between Airbus and Boeing," said FIAB Director General Mauricio García de Quevedo.

The Federation stresses that the United States is the main market for Spanish agri-food products outside the EU, with exports in 2024 amounting to 3.3 billion euros and shipments of 770,000 tons. “The strategic importance, the high purchasing power and the significant presence of our products mean that we must maintain our presence even in unfavourable conditions,” they stress.

The European Commission, for its part, responded that the introduction of 30% tariffs would “disrupt transatlantic supply chains” and expressed readiness to continue negotiations until August 1. However, it warned that it would take “all necessary measures to protect the EU’s interests, including proportionate countermeasures.”