On Friday, US President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on the European Union unless the unit closed its “tremendous” trade gap with Washington by buying more gas and oil.
“I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform in the early hours of Friday.
“Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!”
In 2022, the United States imported $553.3 billion worth of commodities from the European Union, while it exported $350.8 billion worth of goods to the region.
Accordingly, the US-EU goods trade deficit during that year was $202.5 billion.
In order to replace Russian energy, EU leader Ursula von der Leyen had already recommended to Trump in November that the US could provide the bloc with more liquefied natural gas.
An EU spokesperson responded to inquiries about Trump’s warning on Friday by saying that the 27-nation group was amenable to negotiations and that the US also benefited from “a substantial trade in services surplus vis a vis the EU.”
“We are ready to discuss with President-elect Trump how we can further strengthen an already strong relationship, including by discussing our common interests in the energy sector,” EU spokesman Olof Gill told a press briefing.
Trump, who takes office in January, has made sweeping threats of slapping tariffs on US trading partners — including Canada, Mexico and China — which could send reverberations across the global economy.
Accusing Canada and Mexico of allowing the United States to be flooded with illicit drugs and undocumented migrants, he had threatened a 25-percent import tariff, while vowing at least 10 percent against China, Washington’s Asia-Pacific rival.
In an effort to establish a free-trade region with 700 million customers, the European Union signed a significant trade agreement with four South American nations earlier this month: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Von der Leyen had stated that the deal will create trade bridges because “strong winds are blowing in the opposite direction, towards isolation and fragmentation”; Trump’s threats to raise tariffs were mainly interpreted as a reference to his remarks.
Trump’s tariff threats, according to some observers, may just be bravado or a prelude to leverage in future trade talks once he takes office.
But Trump has continually insisted that “properly used” tariffs would be positive for the US economy.
“Our country right now loses to everybody,” he told reporters at his Florida residence earlier this week. “Tariffs will make our country rich.”
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