Donald Trump: US President threatens the EU with punitive tariffs

US President Donald Trump is again threatening the European Union with tariffs. “They’re treating us very, very badly. So they’re going to have to face tariffs,” Trump said at a press conference at the White House. Tariffs are the only way to achieve fairness and reciprocate. Trump lamented the trade deficit and said the European Union would not buy cars or agricultural products from the United States.

Shortly before his swearing in, Trump urged the EU to import more oil and gas from the USA. “Otherwise there will be endless tariffs!!!,” he wrote at the time on his online mouthpiece Truth Social. There had already been a violent trade dispute between the USA and the EU during Trump’s first term in office. Back in 2018, Trump introduced special tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and the EU responded with special tariffs on US products such as bourbon whiskey, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and jeans.

Turning to China, the Republican said: “We’re thinking about 10 percent tariffs on goods from China because they send fentanyl to Mexico and Canada.” Fentanyl is a synthetic drug that causes thousands of deaths each year in the United States.

Mexican drug cartels make it from chemical raw materials from China and smuggle it into the United States. Shortly after his election victory, Trump threatened China to impose additional tariffs of ten percent on goods from China.