President Donald Trump said on Feb. 15 that he will treat value-added tax (VAT) systems—widely used in Europe and other countries—as equivalent to anti-U.S. tariffs when calculating trade levies. The move is part of his reciprocal tariff policy aimed at countering what he describes as unfair trade practices.
“For purposes of this United States policy, we will consider countries that use the VAT system, which is far more punitive than a tariff, to be similar to that of a tariff,” Trump wrote in a Feb. 15 post on Truth Social.
