BUDAPEST, July 12. /TASS/. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has put the blame for the raised US tariffs on European products on the erroneous policy by the European Union’s leadership and the incompetence of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
"In recent years, this incompetence has done a lot of harm to Europe and now we see another failure: Ursula von der Leyen and the European Commission in Brussels have failed to agree with the US administration on a beneficial tariff deal, and the European economy, European companies and Europeans will again suffer from the consequences," he wrote on his Facebook account (Facebook is banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist) after US President Donald Trump announced new 30% tariffs from August 1.
He recalled that from the very beginning, the Hungarian government suggested that duties on US goods be lowered in Europe in a bid to reach a compromise with the Trump administration. "Ursula von der Leyen and the Brussels commission have not done this and the Europeans are in a disadvantageous position again," Szijjarto noted, adding that this is yet another proof that the EU leadership needs to be changed.
"It’s time for changes in Brussels: patriots should come instead of such people as von der Leyen," he stressed, referring to the Patriots for Europe conservative-right bloc of parties and its faction in the European Parliament.
Earlier in the day, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform a letter to the European Commission’s president notifying that starting on August 1, 2025, the United States "will charge the European Union a tariff of only 30% on EU products sent to the United States, separate from all sectoral tariffs," which are now stand at 10%.
According to Trump, there will be no tariffs if the EU begins manufacturing their products within the United States. He also warned that should the EU raise their tariffs in response, the United States will add to the 30% in plans to charge "whatever number" they "choose to raise them by."
On April 2, Trump announced tariffs on products from 185 countries and territories. Russia is not on the list. Universal tariffs of 10% took effect on April 5, and individual tariffs took effect on April 9. On the same day, the US leader announced that he would suspend additional reciprocal tariffs on a number of states and territories for 90 days. The White House explained that the pause was due to ongoing trade negotiations and that a general 10% tariff would be in effect during this period. On June 27, Trump clarified that the US would notify a number of countries, with which it would not sign separate agreements, about further conditions for bilateral trade within approximately a week and a half. These conditions include the tariff rates on goods they supply to the US market. The US administration began sending out these notifications several days ago.