Trump's import duties, resulting trade war will have big impact Dutch economy: Rabobank

Import duties proposed by Donald Trump could have a major impact on the European and Dutch economies if the Republican wins the American presidential elections later this year. Rabobank economists warn of this in a report.

“Dutch exports will initially be affected because Dutch products will become more expensive for Americans,” the experts write. “But the tariffs could also affect Dutch imports. When the United States imposes higher import tariffs on European products, the European Union will most likely respond by also importing higher tariffs on American products. This will create a trade war.”

According to the economists, Trump has a good chance of winning the elections. “He announced that he wants to improve the trade balance for the U.S. and bring industry back within its own borders. To achieve this, he wants to introduce high trade tariffs for goods from China, but also for goods from Europe.”

According to Rabobank, the Netherlands may be faced with more expensive products from the U.S. due to the trade war. When Trump was previously president, the EU also took countermeasures in response to Washington’s higher levies.

“European steel and aluminum, among other things, were affected by the higher import tariffs in the U.S. at the time. Europe then opted for higher tariffs on a wide range of mainly iconic American products, such as Harley Davidson motorcycles, bourbon, and jeans.”

Rabobank also looked at which American imports are very important to the Netherlands. For example, phenol, which is used in the production of plastic or certain types of medicine like aspirin. The U.S. also supplies certain oil products and certain metals that are used for the production of fuel cells, for example. The Netherlands also obtains raw materials and machines for chips from there.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is expected to elaborate on her economic plans at a campaign rally on Friday. People from her campaign team have already said that she wants to focus on combating “price inflation” so that ordinary Americans don’t have to spend so much more on things like groceries and healthcare. She is said not to deviate much from Biden in terms of content, although she does want to emphasize the issues that are most important to her.