Trump tariffs would hit Hungary hard despite warm relations with MAGA-friendly Orbán

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary's populist prime minister has spent years building a close political relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump and aligning himself with the MAGA movement.

But despite Viktor Orbán's success in gaining favor with the culturally conservative and nationalist wing of Trump's administration, his country is poised to be among those hard hit by Trump's tariffs against the European Union.

Trump earlier this month announced he would levy tariffs of 30% against Mexico and the EU beginning Aug. 1 — a move that could cause massive upheaval between the United States and the 27-member EU, of which Hungary is a member.

As a small, export-oriented economy with major automobile, pharmaceutical and wine industries — some of the main categories of products Europe exports to the U.S. — Hungary will be particularly vulnerable to Trump’s tariffs.

The duties “would put the Hungarian economy in a very, very difficult situation, because then the entire possibility for Hungary to export to America would be essentially eliminated,” Péter Virovácz, chief analyst at ING Hungary, told The Associated Press.

‘Not the best way to make money’

Hungary’s largest trading partners are other EU countries like Germany, Italy and Romania, as well as China, but many Hungarian companies export their goods across the Atlantic. Outgoing trade to the United States represents around 15% of all Hungarian exports to countries outside the EU.

One such enterprise, a Budapest-based company specializing in Hungarian wine, said it will likely cease doing business in the U.S. altogether if the 30% duty is levied on its products.

“If it’s really going to be 30%, then there is no more shipment ... We might just call it a day at the end of the year,” said Gábor Bánfalvi, co-owner of Taste Hungary.

Bánfalvi’s company has been shipping around 10,000 bottles of premium Hungarian wine per year to the U.S. for about half a decade. With a base in Washington D.C., it exports a range of red and white wines to clients in numerous U.S. states including specialty wine shops and bars.

Until now, “it’s been a thin profit margin, but it’s been fine because we want Hungarian wine to be available” to U.S. consumers, Bánfalvi said.

“Then came 2025," he said.

When Trump began imposing tariffs on EU exports earlier this year, the cost of Taste Hungary’s shipments tripled, Bánfalvi said — price hikes he had to build into the sticker price of the wine. The imposition of 30% tariffs would make exporting “unsustainable.”

“You just start to think, why are we doing this? Is it really worth it? It’s just not the best way to make money,” he said.